by Pam Uphoff
"I'm going to be scrambling around in the rocks uphill from your tower tomorrow. Why don't you hunt me down tomorrow morning?" she smiled alluringly at him.
He made an uncertain noise, and eyed her suspiciously.
"I'll bring lunch."
Big white granite boulders shoved up out of the ground, and pine trees somehow found space for roots in between house sized rocks. A shaded damp nook was filled with ferns.
It was one of her favorite places in the mountains.
"Too high though."
"Too high for what?" Dydit asked.
She spun around in surprise. "You're early." She wasn't surprised that he was naked. The terrain was tailor made for goats.
"Nil said I was too distracted by impending fatherhood to learn anything and sent me away." Dydit leaned over and kissed her, slowly and gently, arms wrapping her shoulders, then sliding down her back. "Too high for what?"
"Building a house. I've decided I don't really want to spend the rest of my life living with my mother. I’m hunting geysers." She ran her hands over his shoulders and felt the play of his muscles as he thought it over.
"There's a little geyser about a mile down hill. You could have it for your very own, and this place a short walk away."
"Really? I don't remember anything near here."
She followed him through thickets and down steep slopes and into a rocky clearing with a tiny steaming hole. "Goodness. It's a baby geyser. It looks like a teapot."
"We could dig out a pool for it, if you liked." He shifted uneasily and walked off. "House over here would catch the winter sun. Little barn there if you wanted to keep a horse or two up here."
She followed and turned where he'd indicated a house. Mountains on the left, clear views between trees to the south and west of hundreds of miles of empty sky and forest. Downhill, it was two miles to the road, maybe another mile to the Wizard's Tower. "Hmm, this is definitely a possibility." She shrugged off her backpack and sat down to extract food.
He wandered off, frowning a bit, came back dressed, and sat beside her, sneaking looks her way, and played with his food. "So, am I allowed to live in this house you are contemplating?"
"That was the main goal of having my own house," she admitted.
His smile bloomed, and he scooted over to wrap himself around her. "Answer and Happy will throw fits."
"Let 'em," Never shrugged. "What are they going to do? Toss me off the Pyramid?"
"Nah, but I think I'll drop even further in their opinions." He snorted. "I distinctly heard you think 'not possible.'"
She snickered. "It probably isn't. So, let's talk house design. I need to sleep on the ground, and you need sunshine. So our bedroom had better be, umm, about right here . . ."
***
"We've watched them build plenty of times." Rustle grumbled. "There's no reason to send us away."
Havi sniffed. "You're going to get into trouble again, aren't you?"
"No!"
Havi shook his head. "Me and Primo are going fishing. See you later. If you haven't gotten killed, like Dad swears you're trying to do."
She stuck her tongue out at him, then turned for home. She lived with her mother, grandmother, great grandmother, half aunt and half great aunt. For maybe another couple of weeks. Once the house was finished, she'd have a bedroom all her own. Havi would be her brother all the time, not just when they were out exploring. And in two months she'd have a baby sister.
The rest of the witches were mad at mother for wanting to go off and live with Dydit out in the forest. And they all kept telling Rustle about how awful it was, and how she could still live with Answer. She wasn't even a member of the Pyramid yet, and it felt like they were tearing her apart. She didn't want company. She didn't want anyone telling how it would be all right. She slipped into her room and put on her toughest pair of pants and a shirt that was already ripped. This felt like a hike in the mountains and tree climbing sort of mood.
She managed to sneak back out without being seen, and headed for the forest. She veered away from the witches hotsprings, and crept up to see what the Auld Wulf was doing. He hadn't been around much this spring, and he wasn't in sight today. It seemed like an excellent opportunity to spy, so she crept through the neatly ordered ranks of the grape vines. No sign of the god at the house, nor in the back at his own hotsprings. There was a shed, a small barn, actually, big double doors wide open. She checked and found it empty.
Sort of. There was something on the wall. Behind an illusion.
Irresistible. She put a hand through the illusion, and followed it into something that sucked her flat and suffocated . . . there was a little white hole and she reached for it, pulled it to her, except it pulled open like ripping cloth and dumped her on the hard rock.
She had a fast impression of a big black horse spooking and twisting around so the swordsman on his back had a good angle to swing at her. She scrambled out of reach of the sword, looking for a place to run.
"Little Rustle, how did you do that?"
The voice stopped her in mid-flight. The Auld Wulf. Of course.
"I saw an illusion on your shed wall, and I sort of fell into it, and saw the hole and opened it and fell out."
The huge horse snorted as if amused. Her eyes widened as she realized she was finally seeing The War Horse. The one everyone said He had, but she'd never seen. The one that He rode when He was summoned to a battle. The stallion was huge. So black he almost wasn't there.
The Auld Wulf dropped to the ground; the horse was big even next to him. "This is Jet." He pulled something off his saddle and carried it to the nearest rock wall.
Rustle pulled her gaze away from the magnificent horse and looked around. "Why are you riding down the Rip?"
"I'm taking a magic Corridor to the Earth gate." He touched four spots on the canyon wall, forming a rectangle of foggy light.
Rustle squinted and sort of saw the inside of the barn, and the vineyard beyond the open doors. "Why is it so foggy?"
"Because you can see the energy of the Corridor. Most people could see the other side as clearly as looking through an open window. Corridors are just stretched out bubbles, which you probably won't be able to see until you have gotten a bit older and better trained. This one will make it easy for our people to go back and forth, spying on the Earthers. I can open them anywhere, but I have to pull the other end out to where I want it." He nodded at the vineyard. "Of course, I can go home whenever I want. And switch horses, so Jet doesn't have to do it all himself."
The horse gave another expressive snort, and the Auld Wulf laughed. "But of course he could, if I didn't want to give some other horses the exercise."
"What does a bubble look like? Is it one of those?" Rustle poked at one of the things she'd been almost-seeing lately. It ignored her and floated on by.
"Yep. What did your parents do to deserve a child so precocious?"
Rustle eyed him uncertainly, wondering if this was praise or disapproval.
"Your father can see them, too. But he doesn't want to. So ask one of us, if you have questions. Right now, though, you're going to go home." He pointed at the foggy rectangle, and she stepped through. Looking back, she could see him through the fog as he picked up the corners of his doorway and it shrunk back down to a bright dot.
She trotted back down the hill to the village, and climbed in her bedroom window. He'd said she had to go home, not that she had to report in to a relative and get another lecture. She flopped on her bed and thought about magic corridors, and those bubbles she could sort of see, but hadn't managed to catch.
Yet.
She heard voices and looked out the window on Ask's side of the room. The visiting Mages, Oscar and Bran, who were probably Cor, Brad, Vala and Kett's fathers, and the old mage that worked for the King walked down the board walk. Probably going to the Grange barn. Were they going to have a compass tonight? The mages were fun to spy on. Easier to fool than the Auld Wulf, as well. All the older kids spied on them,
especially the mage girls. The mage boys were generally in the barn, even the ones that hadn't grasped power yet. Mages' power sort of came in gradually, there weren't any big sudden jumps, like witches had.
She slipped out of the window and headed for the white hill, where the mage girls tended to hang out. Most likely the little girls would be planning on sneaking a peek. Which of course they were, but their mothers showed up and chivvied them off.
Rustle retreated, too. If the mothers were participating it meant there'd be an orgy. Ick! Maybe she should give up and go fishing after all.
Chapter Eighteen
Summer 1361
Karista, Kingdom of the West, Comet Fall
The general studied the mechanism of the "rifle" with interest. "Longer range and harder impact than a crossbow, eh?"
Oscar nodded. "The projectile is thrown by a very small charge of something we think is similar to cannon powder. It's not nearly as smoky or smelly as the Cove Island cannons, but there's a definite resemblance in the odor."
"They're pretty easy to aim, fairly short training period. We managed to sneak into a couple of the officer's training sessions. Tactics change a bit, because of the greater range, and against a regular army, they're going to be very dangerous." Bran said.
Rufi nodded slowly. "Indeed. They could stand off and shoot volley after volley from out of the reach of our bowmen. I'm afraid that I really need you two to go back to Fascia, and try to get me a timetable for their training, and when they plan to be ready to invade Verona."
Oscar nodded, and saw Bran echoing that.
"So, take a few days off, but I'm afraid there's not enough slack for you to go home to Ash. I'll have your orders, all official on paper, and a chit for funds ready for you in three days."
Chapter Nineteen
Summer 1361
Ash, Kingdom of the West
Obsidian was a beautiful baby.
Question came visiting, her son Jek in a sling across her chest. "That just isn't fair, Never."
Never smirked. "What? Three hours of labor, as opposed to, oh, thirty-six?"
"Exactly. Lefty says—and I agree—that one child is just right for us." She patted her four month old son.
Never chuckled. "I'm glad to hear that's one thing Lefty and Dydit aren't going to be competitive about. It could be a bit hard on you."
Question giggled. "Me? Heck no. He'd have to go to Cadent and have a orgy, just for starters. And without a good accounting of Dydit's, umm, well, Dad says it isn't really his fault, that he took a long time to shed that spell and Maleth's influence."
Never sighed. "Are we going to get back to exploring? Two babies and two active kids . . . I'm really going to hate it if Dydit goes off without me."
"It's worse than that." Question frowned. "The Government is going to put some serious effort—people, equipment and money—into exploration. It is not going to be our little group's project any more."
"Oh. Well. I suppose I should have expected that. Drat."
"Yeah. Now that they have to consider the possibility of attack through that dimensional gate over there, they have to man a watch post on the gate area, and probably some sort of defendable hard point in between."
Never drummed her fingernails. "I suppose we could dismantle the road. That last ramp and the way through the canyon would be easy to remove."
"Find the horses. Retrieve the wagon, and bring it home." Question brightened.
"No you can't. It's not safe." Dydit yelled from several rooms away.
"Oh. Of course, Dear." Never called back. "Anyway, Lefty will need to find out if they want the route closed before we can take action."
Dydit stuck his head in the room. "They haven't done much except for sticking some poor sots out in the middle of nowhere to watch them, with the Auld Wulf popping in once a month to swap them out. The Earthers haven't done diddly except guard the gate building and look mean. Well, they sent those pathetic DONA people and some moles. And it's been eight months." His eyes dropped to the baby. "Almost nine, actually. I suppose I should take comfort in their apparently not being able to make decisions any faster than we can. At least Lefty will be out there now, so there will be some common sense in the vicinity."
Question snickered. "Lefty ought to be back in another week, so we can make him find out about the wagon retrieval, and closing the road across the top of the World."
Dydit stuck his head back through the doorway. "They moved the wagon to their camp, and fed the horses all winter long. Then they chased them off to the south. I liked Little Bit, damn it, she's almost as good as Dun. But I think they're long gone."
Never nodded. "Sounds like it. Well. This winter we finished the potion factory in Wallenton. If people will use them, it should bring our medical tech up close to Earth's. And the king is thinking about the advantages and costs of a public school system. I suspect that it's only going to happen in the larger cities. Other places, if they can't get local agreement, won't have any at all."
"Ash didn't have a school until a few years ago." Dydit pointed out. "And your basic education was so good you picked up Algebra and so on easily. Your reading and writing are better than most old Scoone University students. The rest is just history and civics and so forth, different in every country, let alone World."
"That's because all the adults in the village were educated, and schooled the children at home. What about places where nearly everyone is illiterate?"
"The city schools will be a good first step, Never. And some smaller towns will copy them. You can't change everything in a year." Question sighed. "I want to make gyps."
Dydit nodded. "Pre-fall books mentioned cars running on steam and electricity. Weg's all excited at the thought, and hounding the gods about it. The Auld Wulf found some diagrams of electric motors and now the boy is trying to figure out how to make one."
Question grinned. "My smart little adopted brother. I ought to sic him on you, Never, apparently the motors involve a lot of iron and copper. You could make them while you rest up."
"Oh yes, in the copious spare time a baby leaves me."
Chapter Twenty
Summer 1361
Fascia, Auralian Empire
"Light warps are the best magic yet." Oscar envisioned the mental wedge that split light and bent it around himself. "I just wish I could hold it longer." He strode out with Bran on his heels. They walked right past the guards and into the Amma's Palace.
Once inside, they sought a dark corner and dropped their warps. Illusions, now. With an unnoticeable spell on top. Anyone who did notice them would simply see a palace servant, cleaning something or delivering something. For the busy public parts of the complex this worked well. For listening in on conversations between the Amma and Pax or the Oner Worlders, they reverted to the light warp.
Like this one, which looked like it might finally come to blows.
"I doubt they can be of much help to you." Pax raised a contemptuous eyebrow as he flicked a glance toward the Oners. "As soon as the Gods show up, all these fancy guns will be useless."
"Gods." The leader of the so-called Action Team sounded disgusted. "I understand that you are one of them. Perhaps we should test you."
"With one of your silly games? My agents inform me that General Rufi Negue, the brother of the king, will be touring the Southern Territories in two weeks. The Amma's troops will be there to meet him. I expect the general will call on the God of War. Why don't we go and observe. So you can see and judge for yourself how dangerous a God is. Even with no warning."
The Amma nodded. "An excellent idea. You may accompany the troops, they are leaving as we speak."
The Oner looked furious, but bowed acceptance. "I thank the Amma for the opportunity."
Oscar grabbed Bran and they backed off. Out of sight they released the light warp. “Nil didn’t say anything about anyone’s head exploding from over use of that thing, did he?”
“No. But there’s no way we can keep it up long enough
to follow these guys.”
Oscar grinned. “Of course not, so we’ll have to join them. What do you think? Grooms or Cooks?”
Bran cleared his throat. “They use slaves for both those jobs and all their slaves are castrated.”
“You don’t actually think they check, do you?”
“Point.”
Two hours later they were cringing in front of the quartermaster. “Is this where we were supposed to report?” Oscar kept his head down. “I am a master cook, for the guests and friends of the Amma, who will accompany the troops. Ran is a butcher. I will need fresh meat.”
The quartermaster looked over as the troop commander stomped up.
“We will have thirteen guests and their three servants along for our little vacation tour.” A mix of sarcasm and anger dripped from his speech.
The quartermaster jerked his chin at Oscar and Bran. “Their cook and personal butcher have arrived.”
“Old Gods! Just what I need, the troops seeing these outsiders eating better than them.” He threw his hands in the air. “Keep them as separate as possible.”
***
“It’s just like when we first enlisted.” Bran reduced the lamb to cuts of meat, keeping the best for the guests and passing the rest to the regular cooks. They were starting to be viewed benignly, if not yet favorably.
“Speak for yourself. Even when I was one of Harry’s strays the witches did most of the cooking.”
“You’re just grumpy because we had to get off the boat and march the last three hundred miles. The witches did strange and exotic things to strange and exotic things. All you’re going to cook is salt beef, lamb, and goat. You’re doing fine.”
“Until my spices run out.” Oscar sniffed at the sauce and reached for another lemon. “Or I poison one of them.” his eyes slid to the separate area where the Action Team’s cringing servants were setting up their tent.
“If you do, for the Old God’s sake, poison them all. Or at least those eight. The other four have decent manners and the servants don't cringe when they're the only ones around.” Bran wrapped up tomorrow’s meat with a faint touch of a preservation spell and handed over thirteen big fat chops. “Maybe on the trip home? I’d like to see what these Oners can do.”