Wine of the Gods 03: The Black Goats

by Pam Uphoff

  "So the ambassador sort of flaps his mouth and finally says he's authorized by the Council, and Fair says, 'Did they hold a vote? Surely on a matter of this import, they ran a Special Election. I want to see how the Question was phrased. Somehow, I don't think properly neutral wording was used.'"

  He polished off his ale and shrugged. "So now they think he's a bleeding genius, a brilliant diplomat. He and Lalli spend all their time making up more and more absurd forms. I suspect the war is stalled for a minimum of five years." He shook his head. "All those silly stories of yours! I didn't believe a word of them. Next I'll be seriously considering that you really did cut your own nads off."

  Dydit looked at him indignantly. "I told you. It was the culture of the time. We all did it."

  Harry walking past shook his head, and murmured, "If all your friends jumped off a cliff I suppose you would too?"

  "Yes, my friends are all very sensible people. They'd only jump if they had a reason. So I'd jump and ask why later."

  Question brought out four pieces of pie. "The kitchen is closed." She grabbed a chair and sat.

  Never dragged another chair over and joined them. "So, do you have any idea what you're doing next summer, Lefty?"

  "The King wants the New Lands all mapped." He grinned. "I suggested that I grab the experts and scout out the Scoone border and then map back this direction. How do you experts feel about it?"

  Dydit shook his head. "Map going both ways, by two different routes."

  "I especially want to go as far north as practical," Never broke off as a small blonde figure stomped up to her.

  "Havi hit me and took my blocks and wouldn't let me play with them."

  "Did you hit him first, and was he perhaps playing with the blocks just before you started playing with them?" Never had caught on to two year old morality quite quickly. Rustle widened her blue eyes and shook her blonde curls.

  "That shouldn't be allowed." Dydit informed all listeners, without specifying what.

  Havi trotted over, leaned on his leg and pointed at Rustle. "Bad!"

  "And he can't talk very good. I think he's a dodo head."

  Dydit leaned over toward the boy and whispered. "Remember what I told you about the proper response?" The boy nodded, his eyes lighting. "Let's do it."

  They both stuck their thumbs in their ears, waggled their fingers and stuck out their tongues.

  Rustle's lip started protruding.

  "Oh. Dear." Never said. "They're being boys." She leaned over in turn, and whispered a bit loudly, "That's the worst insult in the world." She straightened back up. "And he can't talk as good as you can because he's almost a year younger than you are."

  "I think I should come this year." Question informed them.

  "In which case you'll need a chaperone." Justice tapped her on the head as she walked by.

  "And a teacher," the Sheep Man said. "If all three of you are going to be out there, that's where I'd better go, myself."

  "And you'll need us to help you." Rotic pointed out. "You've got plenty of people to take care of the sheep now."

  "We are not taking any children." Lefty said firmly. "I am an Army Scout. I'm working."

  ***

  Never spotted the bright golden horse from the yard of the school. It stopped at Lady Gisele's gate, and the rider dismounted, sweeping his plumed hat from his head.

  Lady Gisele stood on her stoop, a smile spreading like the rosy light of dawn.

  Sir Romeau knelt at the gate, and extended a single red rose.

  "What cataclysm lies in the past,

  That I have near forgotten that smile?"

  The woman who advanced from the cottage was only an old crone on the first step. She seemed to shed years as she advanced, and it was the fairest maid in all the land who took the rose and breathed in its perfume.

  "I thought it was the end of the world,

  At the time.

  Yet we have both survived.

  My Cavalier."

  "My Lady."

  "How come you don't kiss like that?" Never elbowed Dydit.

  "Because I'm afraid of you." He appeared to think that over. "We could practice."

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Late Winter 1355

  Fort Stag, Village of Ash

  Colonel Negue returned Bail's salute, then swung down off his horse and clapped him on the shoulder. "How's your road going, Bail?" He handed his reins to his curbsider.

  "Good. We can get you across to the start of the desert and New Lands in two and a half days. Once the snow melts. A couple of couriers have made it in one, but I chewed them out for abusing their horses like that. Are you in a hurry?" Bail eyed his old friend, then scanned his entourage. The two Ash youngsters, a pair of Lieutenants, the three troopers that were taking the horses away. A fast moving small group.

  "Only in that I don't like taking my eyes off the Auralians." He stretched. "I want to see the ground for myself, if we may end up fighting for it. I'll be leaving you with two young officers and their commands to assert possession of the region. And I want to talk to those Ash people."

  "I'm almost afraid to ask." Bail's eye slid toward the Ash pair. The two Lieutenants appeared to be dumping all the saddlebags on them.

  The colonel chuckled. "Selano says he's learned to expect their involvement whenever anything odd happens. Havwee . . . well, I've never seen anything like it. And they're selling bottles that claim to be Havwee temple water all over the kingdom. His majesty wouldn't mind, if only it didn't work so well, some times."

  Bail studied the sky innocently. "Noticed you're still riding your favorite horse. Would have sworn he was a gelding, though."

  "I'll never water a horse at a decorative fountain, ever again. Old Gods that was embarrassing! The Ba'alists were all riding mares, you see. And they drank the water, too." Rufi sank down into a comfortable chair. "All these randy new stallions are a real pain. I hope that joy juice wears off—I've heard some horses have been gelded three times now and they keep growing back."

  "Ouch!"

  "Yeah. And then I need to ask some questions about the Black Goat Wizards."

  Bail considered the village of Ash. "They, umm, are quite nice people who . . . "

  "Are witches, mages and wizards, and perhaps a few of the old gods."

  "Ah. I wasn't sure you realized."

  "Have they really put some of Rivote's young nobles to work herding sheep?"

  "I'm wondering if they haven't got Lord Kell herding sheep."

  "Old Gods." The colonel crinkled his brow. "Maybe I just won't notice . . . do you have any idea what they did to him?"

  "Apparently deflowering a witch can be a dangerous activity, a real life changing event for the man involved."

  " . . . " The colonel shut his mouth.

  "When I re-read the old fables, where every other person you meet is a magic user of one sort or another, I can't help but wonder how, umm, stable their societies were."

  "I suppose an old Tyrant Wizard would have had his hands full, keeping order." The colonel shrugged. "So, the pass is closed?"

  "Yes," Bail rubbed his upset stomach. "So I suppose you could visit Ash first."

  A polite knock preceded the entry of the two Royal Army Lieutenants. Bail could tell, just looking at them that they were nobly born and certain of their superiority to other men. There was a forced civility to their salutes to a mere commoner who was, after all, just an engineer.

  The colonel's eyes narrowed in irritation. Bail just nodded. "Yes, of course. We can ride over to Ash tomorrow. The Fire Mountain Inn has excellent food."

  A supercilious sniff from one of the Lieutenants.

  "I regret to say that they're pretty well out of virgins to deflower, but if you're polite you'll find the local ladies quite friendly."

  Sneer.

  "Mistake them for prostitutes at your own risk," he added.

  The road through the low cross range was scraped after every snowfall, and was passable, so long a
s one was not in a hurry. With the sun out it was actually a pleasant ride.

  The village was snugged down under an accumulated three feet of snow. "They've moved a lot of their livestock to some new buildings to the south. If the Sheep Man isn't in town, I'll send someone with an invite. Harry will be here, of course. I really don't know much about the Auld Wulf." He could see some trails in the snow. The main road and the cross road were plowed or shoveled, and a trail led eastward up the slopes and into the forest. The witches' hot springs. Must be fun in the snow . . .

  "If half of what Selano says about them is true, I expect they'll be sitting around the Tavern, waiting to have dinner with us." Rufi growled.

  They were.

  Rufi waved his officers to an empty table, and invited Bail to join him in tackling the trio.

  They all grinned at the two apprehensive officers.

  Harry shook his head. "We're mostly harmless. Sit down and have some dinner."

  The colonel sighed and sat. "Do you three know much about the history of the world? Especially what they are talking about when they talk about the death of the old world, the discovery of the new world, closing the gates of heaven and, umm, throwing down the gods?"

  The Auld Wulf grinned. "Oh, you want the history, not the myths?"

  "Yes."

  Harry and the Auld Wulf swapped glances, and Harry shrugged. "I'll go ask. Pull up a couple more chairs."

  The Auld Wulf leaned forward. "Part of the problem is that we don't remember very well, and we tend to . . . absorb . . . beliefs that are held by lots of people. Things we saw ourselves and ought to remember get suppressed. Our accounts won't be accurate."

  Witches brought in wine, bread and butter, and then plates of aromatic lamb kabobs on noodles.

  Harry returned with a young couple Bail didn't remember ever meeting.

  He was quite certain he would have remembered the lady. She was exquisite. Beautiful. Rich brown curling hair, brilliant blue eyes in a face a bit paler than usual. The most desirable woman in the World. He hated the fancy dressed fool escorting her immediately.

  "Oh, sorry." She blushed.

  Bail blinked and shook his head. What? She was a very good looking woman, but for a second there he'd been ready to fight the world to earn a single smile from her.

  "Ah, the heat of Man,

  e'er ready to leap forth,

  Doing everything wrong."

  Bail eyed the man suspiciously.

  Harry snorted. "Lady Gisele, Sir Romeau Ayrees, may I present Colonel Rufi Negue of the King's Own and Captain Bail Wullo, the commander of Fort Stag."

  Lady Gisele tilted her pretty head and studied them. She sighed and her eyes turned inward, "The History of the World."

  Bail's skin crawled as age lines traced across her face and gray streaks ran through the brown hair.

  "I'm truly not sure if man created gods, or gods created man. Perhaps we're all the same dream. Certainly we started close together. But history. The kings were jealous, and exiled all the powerful people and all of their families, and that is how we came to this World, gods and people alike."

  The colonel had gotten very still as Lady Gisele started talking. He sat as if afraid to interrupt. Bail realized he was doing the same.

  "Mages and witches ruled, in those early days. The most powerful people. They wanted the powers of the gods, but they also wanted to rule. They studied us, and then they pulled us out of our comfortable niches and tried to fill them themselves. They broke under the strain. And I think the niches cracked a bit then as well."

  Her old hands traced patterns on the tabletop. "I do not know what happened. I only know that . . . I could not return to what I had been."

  The three other gods nodded. The Auld Wulf shrugged. "The Exile, everyone called it. Heaven was Earth, not the World. We Old Gods were injured in the Exile. We helped build the first towns, and then we walked away. We didn't have much to do with men, for awhile, then. We gods all wandered, like madmen or drunks, or perhaps fish flopping about on dry land. Slowly we recovered some semblance of ourselves, some control. But still we wandered, lost in the most profound manner possible. We worked out how magic could be useful in this new place, but we didn't rule. Most of us. A few of us were ambitious for that sort of power." His eyebrows drew together. "I'm not actually sure if those early wars with the other magicians were before or after the Exile. I think the first conflicts convinced the kings of Heaven that we were dangerous, hence the Exile. Then the mages and witches continued fighting."

  "We didn't follow the doings of man very well, in those early times." Harry said. "Oh, the Auld Wulf was pulled to wars, and I wandered the roads. But we didn't notice the reasons for the wars, or why the roads were built."

  "We healed, started living among men again. Trying to help. I'm not sure we understood what help was needed, or what was harmful." The Auld Wulf's eyes were distant, his focus inward.

  "Then something else happened." Romeau said. "A great cataclysm. Some rumors said the wizards caused it. Or the Gods. We don't know. It was a comet. Huge and brilliant."

  "The Old World and the New World," the Auld Wulf said. "The ancient empires across the seas were the Old World, these empty lands here, the New. Just a few colonies."

  "The comet hit the Old World." Gisele said.

  "No one survived," the Auld Wulf shuddered. "The Gods, we few, were powerless to stop it. But we tried. The magicians who had made themselves gods were floundering too."

  "The World very nearly split." Harry's eyes were dark with grief.

  "I gave the magic users of Scoone and Vermillion enough warning to put a shield up over their towns. The Auralian Wizards saved two. The Sea Kings were saved by some miracle." Gisele wiped away a tear.

  "There were quakes and floods. It was dark for years." Harry said.

  "Two hundred years." The Auld Wulf said. "And then the sun shone again, as the volcanoes settled and died. The few people recovered, became many again, and forgot. 'The Dark Ages' they said, as if talking about a couple of years of bad weather."

  "It took hundreds of years for the effects to propagate through the depths of the World, and then through the World. Echoing back and forth." Lady Gisele rubbed arthritic hands.

  "There are still periods when the volcanoes erupt again, then go quiet, like the tide coming in and then ebbing." Harry bit his lip. "Might be smaller comets or meteors involved. We don't really know."

  "The last bad period started five hundred years ago, and ended four hundred years ago. It wasn't as bad as before. We begin to hope." Gisele smiled over at Romeau. "And old friends we thought lost have returned to us." The handsome man took a hand suddenly young and smooth, and brought it to his lips.

  They were quiet for so long, Bail tentatively asked, "How did you come to be here?"

  The Auld Wulf smiled suddenly. "Prayers, I think. We were drawn to where there were people joined together in one mind about us. I suppose I showed up the first time an Army prayed for victory. As soon as people started spreading out there were roads, and travelers praying for safe trips. One day I tripped over Harry. I'd thought I was the only one left. And he said, no, Gisele was around too, but she didn't want to travel. So Harry and I traveled to Scoone, and there she was. Helping women, healing, but also trying to keep the magic users strong." He frowned. "We tried to help and finally realized that we were making things worse, fumbling about like a boy helping ants build a hill. So we came away, thinking we'd just stay away from people. But Nil came, with those wizards, and lost children always seemed to be wandering up to Harry's place. Then after that last war with Auralia, a few witches and mages." He shrugged. "We still don't understand people, or so I'm told. But the world has found us again."

  The Sheep Man grinned at the colonel. "I'll bet that wasn't quite what you wanted to know."

  "Old . . . erm. Well. It fills in a few holes. Thank you." the colonel eyed the four gods. "What do you intend to do?"

  "Very little," Harry said. "Ra
ise any children that show up needing raising, help if we're asked, and occasionally make mistakes, as with that wine."

  "Give bravery to the young men, wisdom to the older, virility to both. If they ask."

  "Try to keep the roads safe, and let people travel wherever they wish."

  The old woman sighed. "Fertility, health, youthfulness."

  "Love." Romeau said, and kissed Gisele's hand. She blushed, all traces of gray disappearing from her hair.

  She rose as he pulled her chair out and escorted her out.

  Like a bubble popping, noise and movement flooded back into the room. Bail had been so fixated on the woman's story he hadn't even noticed.

  "That'll keep your mind busy for a bit." The Auld Wulf grinned and walked out.

  "I need to check the kitchen, I'll send dessert out." Harry rose as well.

  The Sheep Man leaned back in his chair. "Would you like me to leave you alone to cogitate?"

  "I need to write out some notes before I forget." The colonel eyed the man. "You are a wizard?"

  "Oh yes. Mind you, I gave up all that tyrant king stuff seven centuries ago. I came away with the goats and some really fine sheep, and stayed here through the last bout of cold and dark. The world has made an enormous leap forward, these last four hundred years."

  "Four hundred years." Bail fidgeted. "We call it the Age of Exploration. When the Western Kingdom was founded, and the little trading towns along the border with Auralia grew into city states and then countries of their own. How old are the Old Roads?"

  "A thousand years. They were completed before the comet fell. Just. I read books that said there was a port city on a large bay on the west coast. The maps bear little resemblance around the coasts, any coasts. I could correlate the mountain ranges, pretty much, and of course, the grosser features of the lands."

  "You're not a god, so how can you be so old?" the colonel asked.

  The Sheep Man shrugged. "Magic? The gods meddling for so many years and generations we're no better than domesticated animals? They keep breeding themselves into the human bloodlines, you know? The so called Tyrant Wizards came to power during one of those bad times the old gods spoke of. Right around the year six hundred, when the harvests were so bad the people would have raised up a worm if it could fill their children's bellies. I was born in Scoone, in the year seven twenty-four. The volcanoes there were still active when I was young, when I came to power.