by Pam Uphoff
Fava looked at her quickly, and reached to pick up her son. "I hadn't thought about that. Justice has the most spectacular long black hair."
Elegant bit her lip. "Umm, it's embarrassing to admit, even after all these years. I, umm, I was practicing controlling the power, especially with men, except there weren't any men to practice with. So I tried animals." The girls' mouths dropped open. "I didn't realize that those goats were really wizards under a spell, nor that eight of them could overwhelm my defenses. So nine months later, Justice was born, with black hair and eyes the color of the goats'."
Fava and Juli swapped glances, and Fava spoke. "We, um, we went up to a hill to salute the sunset with Bran and Oscar. The goats, they, they . . . "
Elegant nodded. "There is a lot of brute power that flows when a virgin is deflowered. The wizards must have wanted that."
Juli shuddered, tears leaking down her face. "I wanted Bran to be mine forever. I had the spell all ready, Wine, Water, and Blood. Instead the goats took us both."
Fava leaned into her. "Yeah. Me too. Oscar, Oscar kept trying to get that goat away from me. And then for a time he made me forget all about it."
Juli giggled through her tears, "We had an awfully fun time cleaning up. In the morning it was like a nightmare followed by a marvelous dream. But, but, then the Blood Spell didn't work and we both got pregnant."
"And we were right, to worry about the goats." Fava juggled the baby. "Poor guy." She kissed him, "it's not your fault."
"I'm glad you can see that," Elegant said. "I knew my whole pregnancy what the father was. And after Justice was born, it took me a little while to, well, I know it sounds silly, but I was blaming her. I was kind of slow to love her. I felt like such a bad mother." She hugged the baby in her arms, and handed her back to Juli.
Juli kissed the little girl, then held her out and studied her. "Will they be wizards?"
"Justice never showed any tendency to favor the Sun. Now Question . . ."
Fava laughed. Question was a year and a half younger than they were, and they knew her well. "Is she?"
Elegant sighed. "I don't know. She's not going to be a witch. We've given up. Haven't you seen her up with the sheep and the horses? In fact she was up all last night, watching the last two mares foal."
"That makes eleven, doesn't it?" Juli wrinkled her nose, "I didn't think we had any stallions."
"The Inquisitor General had an excellent one. The Sheep Man snuck him out at night."
"No! They were only here for two nights. Eleven mares?"
"That wine. Which is also why your Blood Spell didn't work. When Gisele makes a fertility potion, it works." She blew out her breath in exasperation. "You can guess what the Auld Wulf put in it!"
"Oh! I figured the wine was why we were so, so . . . randy," Fava blushed. "I mean, I shouldn't have wanted anything male to touch me, after, umm."
"That's still a good idea," Juli snorted. "Bran and Oscar aren't exactly model fathers, are they? Why are we complaining about the goats?"
They all laughed at that, and they all agreed that men were almost unnecessary. Elegant kept the babies while the girls shopped, walked out and visited their mothers and had lunch at the tavern.
They seemed in much better spirits when they returned.
"Do you know," Elegant looked around, "I think we need a small building about here, and a fenced yard. We could all trade off watching babies."
"That is a brilliant idea." Fava said.
Juli nodded enthusiastically. "Are the witches going to have more babies? The mage wives appear to have lost their minds—they're all pregnant by a strange mage that came though a few months ago."
"You're kidding! So soon?" Elegant sat back and pondered. "Well, I might have one more, but not for a few years."
"And no goats!" They all three laughed about that.
Chapter Sixteen
Late Summer 1353
Scoone
At the Scoone border the white wash disappeared and it was an ordinary Traveler's wagon that rattled over the bridge over the border river.
The Scoone Citizens' Militia charged out waving torches and screaming, "Burn the wizards!"
Nil backed his team away, turned hastily and returned to the Verona border town.
The Innkeeper explained it to them.
Scoone was in the thrall of Godlessness. They apparently believed in no magical, supernatural, or Deity caused anything. They burned wizards—or at any rate suspected wizards—at the stake, regularly.
Travelers, being associated with witches, séances, fortunetelling and dancing were absolutely forbidden from entering Scoone.
Dydit thought the whole thing terribly funny. "So much for your beautiful wagon. What are you going to do now?"
"Travelers? My dear fellow, we are merchants!" he scratched his head. "I haven't a clue what we're selling, yet. Go find out."
Dydit had a wonderful night out. Three poker games, involving much conversation with merchants, with much gossip about what Scooners brought and bought when they came over the border. A brothel to double check what the Scooners really bought. Then a cozy chat with a Scooner Merchant. Depressing sod. One virgin Priestess of Ba'al who hadn't yet gotten the word about the Flail Handles. All right, he hadn't gotten much information from the last, but, hey. And how that wine worked! Woman was a tiger in bed. Insatiable. He'd had to take a little nip himself, just to be sure he survived the night. He hated to admit it, but it beat rape all to hell and gone. Maybe when he got back to Ash, that witch wouldn't recognize him, and if he had a bit of wine . . . No. She'd kill him. Possibly by accident, possibly on purpose. Witches were bad. He reported back to Nil eventually.
"Their manufactured goods are crappy. So they import better stuff, but there are all sorts of restrictions." He leaned back and smirked. "apparently the best way to get into the country is to sneak in, taking enough stuff to sell on the black market to be worth the risk."
That didn't get a response, so he poked a little harder.
"And wait until you see the clothes they wear. Honestly! No style at all."
Nil looked at him thoughtfully. Leaned back and studied the ceiling. "Actually, you and I are both Scooners. We ought to blend right in."
"Our accents are a couple thousand years out of date. I can barely understand them when they talk. Even the names of places have changed," Dydit pointed out.
"Picky, picky."
"Huh. Well, if you are determined to go, I happened to mention to a Scooner merchant on his way home that we have a nearly empty wagon, and could be hired. And that my uncle and I were Scooners and my nephews, even though they had been born abroad."
"You could have said that first."
"But would you appreciate me?"
"Hard to say," Nihility stood up. "All right, take me to this merchant."
The next day, the wagon really repainted, and loaded with metal goods from tweezers to scissors, they clumped across the border, and were passed on as soon as the merchant finished paying his tariff.
***
Never felt like she was juggling babies. No matter how clever a double backpack for babies was, and the baby in front sort of balanced the load, her daughter, her half sister and her, umm, half aunt were all healthy heavy infants. In fact, at a bit over six months of age, they were starting to crawl and get into all sorts of interesting places.
"How do you manage to juggle two at once, all the time, Justice?"
The other woman laughed. "Between my twins, mother's baby and Blissful's I usually find myself juggling four."
"I help!" Question called back from ahead.
All the youngsters did, and a good thing. The hike up Mount Frost had been tough this year. They not only had to carry the babies, they'd had to carry everything the babies would need.
Tough little Question, who was actually getting quite tall, had carried babies all the way, and fussed a bit over her mother. In eight months they were going to have to do it all over again with toddlers.
But today they were only going as far as the hot springs. As they walked out onto the hot rocks, Never's weariness slipped away. The babies all tried to dive for the ground, as Particular and Opinion leaped in the first pool and started splashing water into a shallow depression for the babies to play in.
Rustle wiggled straight into the warm water, with Ultra and Ask right on her heels. One of Justice's pair, Xanthic, joined them quickly, but Young crept over to her big sister.
"Ah Ha!" Question snatched the baby up. "I've got you in my evil clutches!" she blew on the baby's belly, making her laugh, then stretched out on the ground to soak in sunshine, instead of water. The shadow of a cloud passed over her, then the sunshine returned.
Never frowned over that odd thought. "You know, Question, all the cycle stuff we get our heads stuffed with? Earth, Water, Wind and Fire, circling back to Earth again?"
The girl nodded and scowled.
Justice shook her head, "She's had the lecture, Never."
"Well, I just had a thought. We witches soak in the pools here because they're so full of minerals and the heat from the World that they are full of Earth sourced power. The power laps all the way from Fire, through Earth and into Water. Perfect for us. But if you're half Wizard, maybe the Water is antithetical to your natural abilities."
"What?" Question rolled over and squinted at her.
"Maybe you need to source from only Earth, perhaps lapping over to Fire. Or maybe just Fire. Even with the Sheep Man coaching you, I'll bet you're still reaching for the Earth, instead of the Fire, because that's how you've been taught."
"Don't try to feel the gravity, the pull of the Sun for the World. Try to feel the Fire blazing down. And the Fire inside the World, feel the heat as coming from Fire, not from Earth."
Question stood up and stepped away from her sister, standing with feet on the hot dry rocks and the sunlight soaking into her brown hair. "I was doing pretty good before Father left. But it still wasn't as easy as when I accidentally gathered lightning. But it's so hot today, I can feel the Fire, can't I?" She lifted her hands and sparks leaped from finger to finger, and then she glowed. Held power between her hands, a glowing ball of Fire.
She whimpered a bit. "What do I do? It won't go back."
Never and Justice both leaped up, and Justice put her hands on Question. Never could see the leap of power from daughter to mother, and Justice's desperate channeling. Never reached out and took power herself, a hot burning flood that she channeled as quickly as she could. And Question was still pulling in power. the sky darkened as the clouds gathered. A faint rumble of distant thunder sounded.
"Shunt, Question. Put up a shield and don't let it in." Never glanced up at the ominous clouds.
In fits and starts Question shunted, the power winding down. She was trembling with exhaustion. The clouds blew south and the sky lightened as bit.
Never took a deep breath of relief. "Maybe you should get in the water. Block it mechanically."
Question nodded and staggered into the pool. And slumped. "Whoa. Is that what it is supposed to feel like?" She looked at her hands, the skin reddened.
"Yep, although most of us start out a bit more quietly." Never frowned. "You are going to have to be careful to not try too much without one of us around to draw off power and channel it. And I pity the man that deflowers you."
Particular and Opinion splashed in from the second pool. "We've got our Triad back! Yay!"
Justice stretched and grinned. "No, I don't think so. I think Question is going to be a wizard, not a witch . . . but apparently a daughter grasping any sort of power is enough to have jolted things open for me. Ooo. Some of those lessons suddenly make sense. Hmm."
So Never floated and watched babies, and fed babies, and cleaned babies and tucked babies into blankets while Justice consolidated her new powers and Question moved from sunshine to water, leaning how to control her power intake.
Never wondered a bit uneasily if this was all there was to life. Was simple existence enough? Was there no goal? No true challenges? She'd advance when Rustle grasped power in fifteen years or so, and again when she held her first granddaughter, and again after her Moon flows stopped . . . but surely she would do something besides that.
***
"Funny accent, ya got Mister Deedee. You from Aytoe?"
Dydit sighed. How did Hightop turn into Aytoe?
"Yeah," he twisted his lips around the modern Scoo.
"Well no matter, yer here naow. Just sign here and here, and we're all done," The Block Warden beamed at them.
Scoone was giving him the heebee jeebees, no doubt about it.
Nihily Shee.
Orny Deedee. Ha. Ha.
And the ultimate indignity, his children.
Rotic, Coy and Weg Deedee.
"So, here are your voter's cards. Don't lose them," she looked at him severely. "There's a lot of paperwork in replacing voter's cards."
Nil signed and thanked the Warden effusively, and showed her out of the combined shop and house.
"Why did I have to be the father?" Dydit groused.
"I'm obviously too old to be anything but their maternal grandfather." Nil stooped like an old man, and grabbing his hip stumped into the kitchen.
"We made dinner!" Rotic informed them. In Veronian, of course. Coy was poking the fire in the stove.
Nil made him say it in Scoo and stirred the burning things in the pan. "Maybe we can hire a cook." He shooed them both out the back door. "See if the horses have settled in."
The youngest smart ass trotted in and spoke in perfect Scoo, "Look Grandfather Shee, this book has a history of Scoone in it."
Dydit shuddered. "I'm afraid to ask what it has to say about the Wizards of Scoone. Are you sure you're only six?" The little punk looked even younger. Scary smart. He'd taken to reading like a snake took to chicks. Dydit was surprised the lumps didn't show.
"I may be seven. I don't remember when my birthday is." He thumped the book up on the kitchen table and climbed up to read it. "In the Age of City-States a mutation that enabled the use of magic arose in Scoone. It is not known if the mutation interfered with the mental balance or if it was the actual working of magic that unbalanced the minds of these perverted creatures."
"What? Is this a history book, a science book or propaganda?"
"I think it's a history book Unc, umm, Father." Weg resumed reading. Even the big words barely slowed him. Scary smart. "Archeological digs confirm the mythology and scant surviving records, of the reign of terror of the Wizards."
"A chronology of the Age of Wizards follows. Dates are approximate."
Dydit leaned over and looked at the list. "Zapolo was a mage, not a wizard, and he never left the Old World, anyway. And what about the Goillian wizards? They're the ones that made themselves into gods, and kicked out the old ones."
Nil nodded. "None of them are left, as far as I know. And I think they could only kill the little gods. Not the Old ones. Not even Ba'al."
Weg looked up at that. "Ba'al is a real god?"
"Was a god. What's left of him is just really a figurehead for fanatics. Some of the old gods are starting to recover and get a bit of power back. Maybe they'll kick his ass one of these days."
"They're alive?" The Junior Scholar bounced in his chair. "But where are they? Is there really a Heaven?" He looked from ersatz Grandfather to ersatz Father.
Dydit rubbed his eyes. "Yes, there is a Heaven, but it's hard to explain. Even the old gods can't go there, any more. When the mages found out, they attacked the little gods and took their power. Then they fought with each other. The Old Gods sort of scrambled around trying to figure out how to survive in the Real World. Most likely the new mage-gods fought it out amongst themselves, and who knows who won?" He looked pointedly at Nil.
Nil shrugged. "The old gods fought back, once they got their feet back under them. I expect they tried to use the little gods against the mage-gods. Didn't work really well. The gates of Heaven got jamm
ed shut. The gods and mages finally retreated and found new homes in the World. Or something like that. It was before the Dark Ages, and even the old Scoo scholars were weak on that period, let alone scholars these days. And anyway, it was mages, not wizards that fought the gods. Mostly." He leaned to read, running a finger down the list. "There. Jeremy was the first Wizard King." His own name was second last on the list. "Dear me. Deldrious only lasted five years before the peasants revolted and roasted him along with most of the residents of the City?"
"With the death of Deldrio, the wizard gene is believed to have been driven extinct. No confirmed incidence of wizardry has been recorded since then. The loss of this mutation, while regrettable scientifically, enabled the rise of the great civilizations of the Modern World." Weg looked up. "What's a mutation?"
"Actually," Nil said, "Jeremy, the First Wizard was simply a Goillian who fled his home and wormed his way into the Scoone Society. Seduced and married the daughter of the ordinary king. Same, umm, inherent source of power control that all wizards have, the Goillians were the first to work out that they needed to castrate themselves to gain full power. Now witches and mages are entirely different mutations. The Sea Kings were also supposed to have something different, but I never actually met any of them. Witches have a dominant control gene, where the wizard genes are mostly recessives."
"What are genes?" The information sponge asked. "What do you mean by dominant and recessive? What are wizard genes?"
"Some of each. It's actually rather complicated. And some of the, umm, unfortunate conditions which some of the genes require to become active meant a lot of the wizards didn't have any children."
Dydit curled a lip, "Eventually the eunuch wizards learned that they could regrow their testicles after they were about twenty-two years of age, and not lose their powers."
Weg shifted uncomfortably. "Like us?"
"Right, only, the kids that wanted to be wizards had to decide that at about ten years of age, and then cut their own off," Nil said.