by Pam Uphoff
Ajha nodded. "Easier to keep the Earth confined to a tiny area, than get rid of it once it has an ally. But what is there that we can do about tracking down any magical organizations here?"
Usse snorted. "I think it is time to apply a bit of pressure to an information source that has fallen, by pure chance, into the perfect place. Come along. I hate wandering around this smelly horse-infested city, but it would be best to meet my old friend accidentally."
Ajha hustled out the door after him. "By pure chance" was the term they had drilled into them, in place of "by the One," which must never be spoken in public, and thus best never used in private to prevent the resurgence of old habits of speech.
Six months of watching Usse and his web of contacts had been interesting. The Post Head frequented a few of the local taverns. Not the nearby dives, but fairly nice places. He'd meet people, contacts, not friends. Some he'd pay for information, some would gossip non-stop for a drink. Some were clients and paid Usse for services or information. A few of the clients even came to the warehouse. This contact was apparently a bit different.
"The Holy Captain didn't so much worship Ba'al, as he'd worshipped the 'Holy Mother', poor fool. When the Temple leaders were arrested, he grabbed her child and bolted. Two years later, I spotted him in high company. Apparently pure chance had placed him to save a Lady's life, and he is now firmly entrenched in Lord Byson Treham's household. Lord Byson serves directly under Prince Rufi Negue. He's a relative of some sort. Cuffi does all the marketing for the household, so sooner or later we'll find him."
"Are most of your contacts mostly worshipers of Ba'al?"
"Or former worshipers. Despite getting well inside the power structure, I never could find a truly powerful magic user organizing it. And then it all crashed."
The main market was far enough away from the docks for the fishy smell to have abated, but not so far as to encroach on truly desirable ground. It occupied the strip between warehouses and factories below and the first expensive shops above.
They strolled through the market until Usse nodded at a heavyset man picking vegetables. A brilliantly blond boy, aged perhaps eight years, was at his side. Usse curled a lip disdainfully, but placed himself carefully and bought three good looking apples for the show of it. For a culture with no insecticides, they certainly have nice produce, Ajha thought. Usse turned away from the stall and came face-to-face with the native.
"Old Gods! Cuffi! It's been years!"
The man blinked, and paled a bit. "Err, Mousey. Yes. Indeed."
"Can I buy you a cup of coffee? You know, I was thinking just the other day about the Inquisitor General, and her adventure. You were actually there, weren't you?"
Ajha trailed a bit behind, and leaned on a post beside the coffee shop where he could overhear the man's reluctant memory of the incident. Usse expressed curiosity as to the location of the bizarre encounter, and the man seemed relieved to not have to answer other questions about it. Usse kept the child well supplied with cookies to keep him busy, and kept his distance as if the child were a contagion, and didn't drag out the meeting. The men parted amiably, and Ajha wandered over and swabbed the glasses the man and boy had used. Might as well find out if the adherents of Ba'al had more or fewer engineered genes than the atheist commoners. Then he purchased some ears of corn and a beef roast for dinner, before heading home. He prided himself on having gotten quite good at cooking dead animals.
Usse looked moderately amused at his bundles as he busied himself in the kitchen. "One good thing about you lot. You're flexible and will attempt damn near anything. Did you get that location? Three days east of Wallenton in the Foothills Province."
Ajha pulled out a map overlay of a satellite photograph. "Here. There's a small village . . . It's not far from the estimated co-ordinates of that battle between the Earthers and the local magicians. A bunch of mountains in between, mind you."
Usse smiled thinly. "Excellent. I've wanted a search of that battle site. Go do it. Come back through that village. Cautiously, mind you. No telling what you'll find."
Chapter Twenty-eight
Late Spring 1362
Karista, Kingdom of the West
Lefty walked into General Rufi's conference room and found Captain Trehem and a worried looking civilian reading over some notes.
"There really wasn't much to it." The man was middle-aged, heavy set and unhappy.
Trehem nodded. "Yes, but we do appreciate your mentioning it to us. Lefty, this is Cuffi, formerly a Holy Captain of Ba'al. He did not return to the Temple when the Inquisitor General was released, but he's been recently contacted by a former spy of the Temple, who was curious about that to-do to the east of Wallenton."
Lefty nodded, noting that Trehem didn't name Ash. "I've never heard about that encounter from someone who was near enough to have seen and heard it all. Tell me about it."
Poor nervous Cuffi stammered and blushed his way through the Black Wizard's demise at the hands of a female general, and the local's fervent delight in their rescue. Lefty had trouble keeping a straight face as he suddenly started recognizing people from their descriptions. Never kissing the Inquisitor General's boots, tears of thanks in her eyes? Nil, the dim witted shepherd?
"So, this Mousey has been around for years?" Lefty asked.
Cuffi hesitated. "My father volunteered me in, umm, forty-nine. Mousey was already well up in the Temple hierarchy, the first time I ever heard of him. He was the Spymaster's assistant. Gave me the creeps even back then, he did. And yesterday, well, all he wanted to know was where it had all happened. I, umm, didn't mention the village's name. Just that we'd gone three days out of Wallenton. I didn't figure they deserved his attention, and the more I thought, the less I liked the idea, so I asked His Lordship who I ought to talk to about it."
Lefty nodded. "It might have been an innocent encounter. But just in case he's a spy of some sort, if you meet him again, you might write out as close as you can remember what he says, and what you tell him."
Trehem eyed him. "Are you going to talk to those people up there?"
"With the General's permission."
"Good. C'mon Cuffi, let's get home."
Lefty read the man's report, and wandered back to the General's office.
"What do you think?" Rufi leaned back in his chair, looking a bit rough for the elegant appointments of the Palace room.
"Ba'al was about the only show of magical ability going, for a good long time. If I were a foreign spy looking to study the local magic, that's where I'd be. The question is, where is this 'Mousey' from? Verona, Auralia or Earth?"
"And if the Earth has been studying us for so long, what have they found out, and what are they going to do? We both know how few witches, wizards and mages are alive today. An all out invasion would overwhelm them quickly, and we don't have the ability to resist or duplicate the Earth's weaponry."
Lefty thought about the guns of the explorers and wondered how they differed from their Army's weaponry. Dydit's descriptions of the battle in the Feather River Canyon had made them sound considerably more powerful. "So they have a second line of spies? Long term moles just now poking their heads out?
"Looks like it. Go to Ash, warn them about Mousey but also talk to everyone about how to deal with the Earth, collect ideas. In fact, ask them if they have any idea what happened to the statue of Ba'al. We moved everything, so if it gets really energetic it will still be trapped on an island, away from people. Apart from the steady stream of tourists taking picnic lunches out there. I'll do whatever the gods recommend." Rufi's eyes crinkled. "I'm afraid it is much too early for you to get snowed in for the winter. I'll have to find some other reason to send you up there, later."
"Training always sounds good, Sir. And if I take that new stage to Wallenton, it'll get me there so fast you'll never realize how much time I spent there, this time."
***
The Earthers had moved the wagon to the Gate camp, and stripped it. Almost two years since they
'd abandoned it, and by the brush grown up around it, it hadn't been used for at least a year. Parked out away from the Camp proper, the soldiers probably wouldn't notice it was gone for a good while..
Question repaired the wagon while Never searched the area for the horses. A wizard's natural affinity for sunlight somehow transferred to the easy manipulation of what her father called "solid sunshine." Which was an odd way to look at wood, but then her father was very odd.
They'd tried out a new 'corridor' that the Auld Wulf had created, and snuck down from the hills after a day long survey from the heights showed no sign that they'd been detected. They'd ridden two sturdy cart horses, assuming that their abandoned beasts had either moved south or frozen, unprotected in the brutal winter so close to the ice cap.
But apparently the soldiers down in the science camp had adopted them. Storm had quite the little herd now. The three mares all had pinto foals tagging along behind them and two chestnut yearling fillies filled out the group. A yearling colt was hovering in the near distance; no doubt Storm had made it clear he wasn't welcome near the mares. The yearlings were all rather obviously Sun Gold's offspring.
"Do you know, I'm half minded to leave them here. They're a good start on repopulating this continent with useable animals. We should bring in cattle and more horses."
"Leave them if you want. But you have to explain it to Dydit and my Dad. And they're going to be awfully inbred." Question juggled a small Jek who clearly wanted to get down and explore in person. "No, Jek, you may not practice your crawling underneath horses. How on the World did Rustle and Havi survive?"
Never patted Obsidian, sound asleep in a sling. "Rustle was two and a half, and Havi almost two the first time we took them with us. Well, it was only my second trip, and Dydit's and Lefty's third. I won't say they were old enough to have any sense, but they knew not to walk under horses."
Question snickered. "And I think they believed their Daddy's stories about the giant kid-eating water lizards. You on the other hand, got a bit of a shock, didn't you?"
"A bit? I think I was as shocked as Kite, and the lizard was after her not me." She looked down at the baby. "You know, we never did map the east side of the New Lands. We should think about spending next summer out there."
"Even a short mapping trip would be great." Question jiggled her son. "Then you too can grow up in a Traveler's wagon."
They rolled out the next morning, under a light warp and there was no alarm raised. It was a long four hours before they turned down the deep gully where the Auld Wulf had anchored his Corridor. From there, they drove straight through and out the solid wall of the wizard's tower.
Question let out a whoop and dived off the wagon and into Lefty's arms. "You're back! And wait till you see what the Auld Wulf did!"
"I think I just saw it." Lefty set her down, grinning.
"It's quite a trick. Beats Traveling—once it's up." Dydit unharnessed the mares and shooed them away.
Nil snorted. "He can move the ends wherever he wants, just pulling them along. I thought we hadn't seen much of him lately, and I couldn't figure out why he was borrowing so many horses and running them so hard. Ha! Relays. When the horse was done for the day, it was just pop back through the corridor for a good night's sleep. Next day a different horse."
Dydit chuckled, "And not a sign of that big black one. You know Never, we definitely are going to have to enlarge the barn at our place. After all, the children need horses too. No sign of the horses we turned loose?"
"Actually they're doing well, populating the continent with equines. The soldiers built a shed for them, and put up hay. I figured it would be less obvious to leave them there. And the lack of riding horses around here is mostly due to you and Nil breeding every mare you get your hands on. Let's grab Havi and head for town. I could stand dinner at the Tavern tonight, and I'll bet Rustle is ready to be rescued from my mother and grandmother."
It turned into a large welcome home party, as much for Lefty as Never and Question, who hadn't actually been gone very long.
The next day, the witches all left for Mount Frost and their Summer Solstice ceremony. Question showed Lefty the intricacy, or rather the simplicity, of the corridors. When Lefty finally headed for Karista, it was with one end of a corridor to Ash, and another to his Gate Camp observation headquarters. In his backpack.
***
Lefty eyed General Rufi a bit nervously. He'd always seemed open about magic, but this thing was startling. "The Auld Wulf did something . . . odd. Worked at it a couple of years running, apparently. It'll speed up getting from the Gate Camp to here immensely. It's a magical corridor, and I've got one end with me. The other end we left out in the hills between the Gate Camp and that Science Camp. And that's the third thing I need to talk to you about."
"Magic corridor? Umm, let's start with the Science Camp. What are they up to?"
"They are quite certain that this One World, their enemy, has Gates to our World. All in Auralia, apparently in two cities, Fascia and Discordia. They were talking about them having a regular once-a-week gate schedule in each city."
"So they are concerned that the One World is spying on the Auralians? Or do they realize they have already allied with them?" Rufi's eyebrows rose.
"They seem to be worried that these Oners will use the Auralian army to further the One World's conquest of this World. I . . . don't like the sound of some things they are thinking of doing to stop them. It may be all hot air, but I think I need to spend more time over there listening to them, and turn this spy hunt over to Dydit."
"Hmm, Oscar and Bran are on Auralian duty, and report that the One Worlders are training the Amma's army in the use of advanced weapons. Things that are like small versions of the Cove Island cannons."
"Training, or actually arming them?"
"Both. Damn, I need more magicians. I should try recruiting in Ash. Oscar and Bran are my only people who can get close to the Oners and the Amma." Rufi sighed. "Now, this magic corridor. What does it look like?"
Lefty huffed out an amused breath. "Four rocks glued to a piece of paper, labeled 'this way up'. I'm told that the fewer magic genes one has the clearer ones vision through it. It looks sort of foggy to me, Dydit says he can't see anything but bright fog and perhaps some ghostly silhouettes." He pulled out the two papers with rocks stuck on them.
Rufi cocked his head. "It looks like a window on a weathered and holey limestone exposure. Deep gully, at a guess." His eyes narrowed. "I can see the grasses on top blowing in a breeze."
"Yes, sir. And if we move these rocks further apart, we can open the window large enough to just step through." He unfolded the second one. "And this one goes to Ash, to the wizard's tower."
"Obviously we need to put the Gate Camp corridor someplace secure. Guarded. Not inside the Palace grounds, in case the Earthers discover it." The general tapped his fingers, then nodded. "There's an old building at the First Army Depot. Far enough away from the rest of it that a raid out of it would be seen coming, near enough that the scouts can bunk in the barracks there, at need, and run messages in for me within an hour."
"Sounds perfect."
"The Ash corridor can go here. The guards will be throwing fits regularly, but it's good for them."
Chapter Twenty-nine
27 Rajab 1364 / late spring 1362 Local
Foothills Province, Kingdom of the West, Target World Forty-two
There was a stage as far as Bridgetown, from there they had to walk. Or would have if they weren't from a superior culture. Ajha had carried the antigrav generator in his backpack, Egto the folded platform, Idre the controls and Wink the batteries. While Egto and Wink assembled the little scooter out of sight of any curious Bridgtonians, Ajha and Idre hiked back and refilled their backpacks with food that would hopefully keep until they were back in civilization.
Then they traded off driving and sitting on their packs, scrunched up on the inadequate platform. By keeping their minds open—it was so nice to be out
of the City, away from the mental din of thousands of nearby people—they detected and avoided the few other people and even ghosted past the fort in the middle of the night. Just a bit of projected inattention was all it took. And whatever Usse's expectations, there was no sign of magical glow about the place.
The slopes steepened abruptly, the riders had to get off and walk up the steeper inclines, but it was still a hell of a lot faster and easier than walking all the way. On the thirteenth day they stopped to gawp at a deep canyon, with the road winding down into the depths and then back up the steep wall opposite.
It took Ajha a moment to focus on the bridge soaring across the canyon below him. He studied it and finally decided it was probably two thirds of the way down. He blinked and refocused. "Who the hell built that bridge?"
Idre looked at his locator and took a range across the canyon. "This is where the battle took place. Let's go take a look."
Halfway down they found the first sign. A excavated hole in the cliff with metal shrapnel imbedded in the rock. They walked slowly down, attention jumping from their instruments to scanning the ground with their own eyes. They picked up expended bullets a curve later, then some odd irregularities in the paving, which had been concrete until patched with rectangles of recrystallized granite. But there were only three patches and beyond them a bonanza of expended rounds.
"Machine gun hosed the whole area. And another artillery round hit up there."
Ajha walked back and forth. "See how there's an abrupt cutoff of the bullets? The natives were using a shield. Bet we find a bunch of bullets over the edge, they probably slid off and down to the next turn of the road." They walked on around the next hairpin turn and did indeed find the predicted rounds.
Egto picked up a handful, examined them. "About half aren't deformed. They hit something soft. Do the natives use a gradual shield, instead of a hard one?"