by Pam Uphoff
Warric slid the flask under his robe, jammed it in the waist of his small pants. One of the tanks drove through the Gate, and he picked up the unconscious woman, slung her over his shoulder and thinking shield very very hard staggered through the Gate. He nearly collided with the Disco people. The tall man took Quicksilver from him and grabbed something from thin air, flipped it around and dropped it over the woman. It closed down over her like a bronze shroud, sucked down tight against her, turning her into a bronze statue.
Then pain lanced through his head. Brekley, frantic and furious, was going to make sure he was in control. He threw up his mental diverters and deflected pain and damage and draining snatches, folding his core self up tight behind the smallest diverters he could hide behind. He knew his poor body was catching the worse of it. He refused to listen. Cut all contact beyond the sound of his heart beat and the panting of his breath. Refused to feel the pain. Eventually he regained enough energy to think of more than stubborn survival, and peeked out. No pain. Well, no pain being inflicted. He was certainly hurting, but it was the ache of days-old injury and days-old immobility.
". . . don't show better control over yourself, better minding of your God, better care and more judicious discipline we will take him away from you."
A Temple Priest. Reaming Brekley. Excellent.
"He's not badly hurt, he just hides mentally from punishment. He's starting to come out now." Brekley was too cocky, too arrogant to kiss butt.
This would be a bad time to transfer back to the Temple. Warric forced his eyes open and looked at the two priests.
"There. About time, God of the Sun. Get up, get out of those filthy clothes and take a shower. I will have food sent."
The flask. Warric rolled away from the priests and slunk into the bathing room. Yes, something was jabbing his belly. Trust Brekley to have not even touched him while he was unconscious. As usual, he was quite disgusting. He bent stiffly to set the flask behind the pipes, and nearly couldn't straighten again. He dumped his clothes, turned on the water and stepped cautiously into the basin. He sat down and relaxed. Hid behind his Chain and took stock. When he had been on the far side of the gate, Brekley had not been able to touch him. So if he could get through a gate, he was safe. Sort of. Briefly. Maybe I should have run. He hadn't rescued Quicksilver with the idea of obligating her to help him, but having done it, he wondered if he might have gained a useful resource. If she's alive. I'd best be a very good god until she's healed. And give some thought to which gate to escape through.
He located soap and set to work returning himself to Brekley's good graces.
One of the cleaning women snatched his discards and fled, another tossed towels and clothing through the door. He couldn't even see her. What did Quicksilver say? "Of course, deflowering a virgin is always a fun way to break a . . ." Chain, perhaps? Not that any of these poor drudges were likely to be virgins. There's always my virginity, wonder if it works like that? I may be glad of my honor yet. He dried, dressed, walked out to the dining room. A plate of bland foods sat on the table, the suite was otherwise empty.
He started trying to remember that horrible first day at the Temple in Rum, the ceremony of the Chain. There'd been chanting. He needed to remember the Chants.
Chain spells have a handle.
Chapter Ten
The Thief Strikes
The God of Thieves' magic horse had left both her kids at home. A dangerous mission like this was no place for young horses. Or idiot hounds. They'd been howling in protest as Speed galloped off.
Kevi kept the light warp closely around them as they followed the Arbolian supply wagons back to Arbolia. They emerged in a brightly lit walled courtyard, with red uniformed guards checking every wagon. Since they were empty, the search was brief, and the gates were opened to let them out. Kevi wiped his forehead. The compulsion was the strongest he'd ever felt. He'd felt it all the way up in Arrival, when they'd gone to have lunch in Charliesville. He just hoped this World's Collective Subconscious knew enough details that he could steal what so many people thought should be stolen.
Why now? Is it something new, or a shift in the collective subconscious? A new thought? A tipping of the balance?
Kevi shrugged. He didn't tend to dwell on philosophy. He just went where the Collective subconscious thought he ought to go. Tons of fun, interrupted by flashes of pure terror.
The Temple of the Gods was easy enough to find. Close, too. They no doubt wanted to keep control of the Gate. He felt the urge to ride around to the side. And hurry. A plain alley, a single small coach parked, the horses practically asleep in their harness. That door was where he needed to go.
They trotted around behind the coach. There was a woman sitting in the coach, reading a book. She looked out, and up and down the alley. Probably heard the ring of horseshoes on pavement and wondered where the horse was.
"Now, you stay hidden! Or at any rate, unnoticed." Kevi tossed the unnoticeable spell, and shrunk the light warp to cover just himself. He hopped down, then stretched up to unbuckle the saddle bags. With them over his shoulder, he approached the door. No sign of a knob, let alone a lock. This might be a problem.
The door flung open, an irritated red-robed man holding it. "Hurry up, I don't have all day!"
Kevi trotted in, then dodged aside as he realized the man's speech had been aimed at the woman staggering down the hallway. She was dressed in a dirty shift, and the baby she clutched was completely naked, and obviously only a few hours old. Was he here to help her? No. That didn't feel right, and looking out the door, he could see the woman leaving the coach, a small blanket in her hands. Right. Baby and Mom were in good hands. Now what was he supposed to be doing?
He followed vague feelings, shying back away from a birthing room that definitely needed to be cleaned. Sterilized. Any half-assed midwife would eat these people alive, if she ever saw that mess.
A bleak excuse for a harem, with two middle-aged women on guard, frowning vaguely in his direction. A rectangular garden, with a trio of pregnant women pacing. Ah! This felt right. A chapel with just a few pews. A row of heavy metal boxes across the front.
He opened one. Yellow powdery sand. He grabbed a passing bubble, ripped an opening and tipped the box to dump the powder into it. Then he rummaged in his saddlebags for the sacks of yellow sand, refilled the box. The next metal box was full of red sand, the next black, and then brilliant white. He replaced them all, and sat back, feeling warm and satisfied. He was done.
Footsteps approaching. He tucked himself into a corner as a red robe led a dozen young women into the room. They were a seriously unhappy bunch, and huddled miserably on the benches as the red robe opened all the boxes, then stood behind the upright lids to preach at the woman about their sacred duties, and the uplifting effects of serving the gods. The women didn't look inspired to anything but further distress, as the man rattled on about them glorifying themselves by bearing gods.
Kevi wrinkled his nose. If they are deliberately breeding gods, why toss that poor woman out into the street with her naked newborn? Had she committed the ultimate sin of producing a normal baby? Okay, okay, Mom always railed on and on about how she was tossed when she didn't grasp power, so we're not perfect either. But she was sixteen. We don't throw babies out in the street.
The women lined up, and paraded by the boxes, and then back out the door.
Kevi followed the red robe when he turned them over to some older women and strode off.
He joined a trio of other red robes. "Bernard, good, we're all here. We need to determine what is going to breed the Princess Primus. It's going to be fun – she's one of the very smart, very well-educated, snooty ones. I think the God of Fear would be fun. Let her see him before she takes the poppy. What do you think?"
Bernard grinned. "I think we should draw straws to see who gets her first – can't have a God take a virgin, you know. Then, hmm, you know we haven't used Swamp, lately."
"He makes too big of a mess. Half the t
ime we have to replace the mattress because we can't get the stink out of it."
"Yeah, yeah. Well, how about the Joker, then. The horns and hooves are such a fine touch. The Exalted outdid himself with that one."
They all nodded, apparently approving, then they did the straw drawing thing, and the winner smirked and led the way out. One of the red robes trotted off, but Kevi stuck with the short straw winner. The trio crowded into a luxurious bedroom. A woman with a shaved head, wearing a black robe, turned to face them. She looked both elegant, and amazingly young and vulnerable without hair. Or maybe she would have looked like that anyway.
"Congratulation, Princess. The Gods have selected the God of Jokes to father your first child."
She paled a bit.
"First, drink this. It will ensure conception. We do not want to waste the god's time with repeated attempts." He sounded remote and uninterested, didn't even smirk when the girl paled further at the thought. Kevi wanted to beat him to a pulp.
She took the glass and drained it.
There was a stir down the hallway. The red robes shifted away from the door, and Kevi slipped in, then turned to see what was coming. It was tall, with a reddish sunburned and peeling look to its—his—skin. Naked, with the large penis erect, an excited grin on his face, two short horns emerging from either side of his forehead above the temples. The red robe who had left, and an older red robe with golden stitching all over were behind, escorting him. The girl paled even further, backing away before she collapsed. The red robes laughed, and short straw swaggered over to her.
Enough! Kevi started at the back with sleep spells for the old red robe and the other, then as soon as one of the others noticed, switched to stun, because it was faster. The horned guy was frozen in place, looking from the old man on the floor to the girl on the floor to Kevi. The god could see him through the light warp.
Kevi pointed down the hall. "Run for it."
A nasty smile split the Joker's face. He bent over and pulled a short ornate knife from the red robe's belt, and sliced the old man's throat.
The god jerked back, mouth open in a silent scream, arms wrapped around himself. He bounced off the wall and staggered away. A few steps down the hall and he was running.
Kevi ignored the bloody mess, and turned back to the girl. He hoisted her over his shoulder and staggered out the door. Two turns later he stopped long enough to put her down, catch a bubble to put her in and then continued on his way. He backtracked carefully, found the chapel, the harem. It was in disarray, with the Joker humping on one of the guard-women as the rest ran around shrieking. More hallways and turns, the filthy delivery room, with the sound of a baby crying, the door to the street. Locked and attended.
Kevi scowled. Did he have to wait until they tossed the new mother out the door? And how long was that?
Fifteen minutes, apparently.
Kevi preceded the sobbing woman out the door. The coach was still there, and the waiting woman again left it to approach the new mother.
"Come along dear. You know Geni, don't you? She said we should wait for you, and so we did. Were there any other women in labor?"
The young woman was helped into the coach, where Kevi could see the first one, baby in arms. Speed was still behind the coach and he mounted quickly, turned and trotted away. Now the question was, could he get back through the gate? Or did he need to run for Arrival?
He could feel the grin on his face. He didn't know what those powders were that he'd stolen, but the Collective was delighted. An alarm started tolling behind him, and in front of him the ordinary gate to the dimensional gate swung closed. Soldiers bristling with weapons popped up on top of the wall, and were rushing out of the Temple and, well, showing up everywhere.
Speed turned and took off down the biggest road, dodging wagons and other riders.
"I hope you realize this means we've got to cross about five thousand miles of hostile territory before we can even try to find the first Arrival gate!" Kevi leaned forward and grabbed mane unashamedly. His head was starting to hurt from holding a warp for so long.
:: Then let it go. We may need it more, later.::
He let it go, to instant screams and spooking horses. One idiot hauled his wagon across in front of him. Speed leapt over it, barreled into another horse's hindquarters, staggering it and kept on going. This city, like most large ones, had long outgrown its walls, but the old gates continued to perform as bottlenecks to traffic. This bottleneck was side-to-side wagons until the soldiers rattled out to stop traffic. Kevi warped light again as Speed swerved to the side where the oncoming traffic was blocked. She laid her ears back and took a run at the unsuspecting soldiers. Poor sods were looking around in confusion for the running horse they could hear when she barreled into them. She plowed through three ranks, swerved back to the other side of the road and down the nearest alley, and around the next corner. Kevi released the light warp again. The narrow, crooked road was going roughly the right direction, and empty enough that Speed was probably going faster than on the main road. All the roads ended at the steep bank of a substantial river. They halted at the edge, and Kevi looked upstream. Ships everywhere. Some had smoke and steam coming out of them, he could see one with a big paddlewheel in the rear. A low flat bridge. As he watched, a section opened, rotated. Ships shoved forward, passing through.
"That is going to be a really bad place to get trapped, Speed."
She tossed her head and headed for the bridge.
As at the wall, the wagons were all on one side. Speed shoved her way through a double row of wagons and turned to pick up speed on the empty side. Wagoneers yelled threats at him, but his eyes were on the paddle wheeler pushing upstream, and a barge full of coal coming down stream. He really, really hoped Speed knew what she was doing.
The black mare soared off the road, landed in an avalanche of coal, three strides and she leapt again, up and over the rail and onto the swiveled section of the bridge. He could see the man at the high wheel of the paddle boat, eyes intent on the bridge clearance. Then Speed was airborne again, skidding to the right across the polished wooden deck, getting her feet planted and soaring over the rail to the road. As she rocketed down the road, Kevi laughed maniacally.
"Behold the God of Thieves! Away Speed!" He had no idea if anyone could hear him over the thunder of Speed's hooves. They shot off the bridge and the road widened. There was even a wide grass verge, kind to horses' hooves. Speed swerved onto it and flicked her tail as she galloped.
They cruised around a wide curve and spotted the guard post. Almost a small fort, a hundred feet off the road. A sizable troop was just mounting up, and Speed and Kevi were fully visible.
"Charge!" The officer yelled as he mounted, his trained horse leaping forward even as his rider hit the saddle. A bunch of other troopers leaped forward as well, and Speed flattened into a sprint. She cut across their charge inches ahead of the officer's horse and started adding to her lead as they turned in pursuit. Even fresh, the cavalry horses lost ground steadily.
:: That was so fun! ::
Kevi laughed again. ::Yeah. Pity I didn't bring a map, I wonder what's ahead?::
:: Let's go find out. I hope there's another river.:: Speed waved her tail at the troops now a quarter mile behind her, and kept running.
Chapter Eleven
Astronomers
"It's fascinating, getting these once a month snapshots of this . . . city." Lord Marius Menchuro waved vaguely around. "Every time we return there's a new building under construction."
The initiate on his left nodded, most of his attention focused past Marius. Up the table Senior Priest Brekley was dining with Ambassador Greene.
Marius was closer to the head of the table than usual, closer to the God of the Sun, standing obediently against the wall behind his controller.
Thank Arbol! I'm almost glad we were away for the excitement, now that I can see that Warric's all right. Well, as right as he's allowed to be.
"We'll get our
preliminary reports written and sent in and ship the plates through. Much though I love collecting the data, it's nearly time to settle down for a year to analyze what we have. To understand the patterns and possibly even the causes of these dimensional splits."
The initiate on his right turned to frown at him. "So you'll cease to annoy us?"
Marius subdued a smirk. "Yes. I think one last field trip, and we'll be done here. A month to work up our reports and then we'll be heading up the Northwest Road to the Maze of Gates for two months in the field."
He let his gaze pass casually across the glowing god. The god's hand, lax by his side curled slightly, the thumb briefly touching the curled forefinger.
We will help you escape again, in circumstances that won't bring you right back.
Chapter Twelve
Princess Primus
Kevi basted a rabbit on a spit while a couple of ears of corn roasted in the coals. It had taken nearly a month to be sure they had lost all pursuit. But now they were way to the West, and hadn't seen a soul since Kevi had stolen supplies from a rich-looking manor house a week ago, and hadn't been seen by a soul since they were last sighted heading due north.
"This is the life! Living free and dangerously."
Speed nodded her agreement. :: What did you steal from the Temple?::
"These colored powders they used in some religious ceremony, I haven't a clue what they are, but I'll bet Q will know . . . " He stared at Speed, slack-jawed. "Old Gods! I forgot all about the girl!"