Mages at Large (Wine of the Gods Book 18)

by Pam Uphoff

  "No sulfur smell, no humidity?" Dobs turned in a circle, taking in the tropical vegetation and the snowstorm overhead. Eyes wide in astonishment.

  "Nah, the farmer girls take care of that." Orion pointed at a door to the outside. "Privies and showers are through there. We're just getting the last of the roof panels up. So it's not quite outside."

  The room across the hall was nice and roomy, but the bed wasn't big enough for more than two people. Falco peeked out the door to the privy. How did we lose indoor plumbing in a mere thousand years? I thought it was just the boom towns, not . . . everyplace.

  We lost a lot. Those steam engines I was working with. Electricity. Cars of either sort.

  Of course they've got these corridors. But still . . . shouldn't we be teaching about the tech they've lost? Instead we're either breaking rocks to find gold . . . or fencing stolen gold.

  Why did I free the Archmage? Why didn't I free my father instead of Max's?

  Falco took a deep breath, then walked out to hunt down their wagon.

  Orion showed him the way. The mares were happily munching on hay in a nice warm barn. The wagon was under tarps; Falco loosened the ties enough to slip under and fetch out their minimal wardrobes, and three sacks of gold dust that probably would weigh in at close to thirty pounds each. He left the rest, and staggered back inside.

  "Yow! You guys are doing well."

  "Well, there's so much gold being found the price is really low right now. So we've kept a lot, hoping the price would go up again." Falco eyed him. "Enough to get us through till Dobs gives birth?"

  "All winter long and twice over to spare. We're not like those rapacious merchants in the boom towns. Val and Drei tell horror stories about how much they charge for everything." Orion shook his head. "I've got a safe room, if you want me to keep them."

  "Well. How about one for you, now. Stick one in your safe room and I'll keep the other for, well, we could use some new clothes and such, and the midwife, and stuff for the baby and . . . "

  Orion laughed. "Deal. Oh hey! Rustle! We've got guests, including a pregnant witch. This is Falco. Come and meet the others. Rustle Neverdaut's the Senior Sister of the Rip Pyramid."

  Falco blinked in astonishment. "Aren't you too young . . . ?" He trailed off as he remembered many admonitions to never . . .

  Rustle laughed. "Oh yes, but due to some odd circumstances, here I am, a Waning Half Moon. Where are you from? I can't place the accent."

  "Well . . . Scoone."

  "If you can't tell the truth, just look mysterious." Rustle looked more amused than anything, but she was studying him in puzzlement.

  "Well . . . we were in Scoone for half an hour or so . . ."

  Orion looked around. "And ran away before they burned you at the stake?" He stopped at the rotunda. "I'll put these two away. Take Rustle down to meet Dobs."

  Falco carted the last sack and clothes down to the last door and tapped it with a foot.

  Max opened the door. "Falco . . . Oh. Umm."

  "I've got our stuff, and this is Senior Sister Rustle Neverdaut."

  Max stiffened. "Come in. This is my wife Doberman Freshdaut." He braced himself.

  Rustle just ignored that and stepped in and held out a hand to Dobs. "Always a pleasure to meet a new witch. We're still settling in for the winter, we'll throw some ceremonials as soon as we catch our breaths. You are welcome at all of them, for as long as you wish."

  Dobs swallowed. "I won't leave Max."

  "Well, best you avoid our parent pyramid in Ash, then. Senior Sister Answer—who is my great grandmother—is nasty enough to those of us who keep company with a single man. The witches who dare to actually marry are . . . umm treated like traitors to the whole of witchdom. It gets tedious."

  Dobs gulped. "Tedious?"

  Rustle grinned. "To be polite. Out here, we're a small eccentric pyramid, and considered pretty much beyond any hope of redemption. Umm, you'll probably want to avoid the parties. They tend to devolve into orgies. Friendly orgies. This wing usually houses the families, so you'll be getting lots of attention and advice. Ask will be back tomorrow, she's the best midwife . . . and you look tired. Have you eaten?"

  "Not since . . . breakfast?"

  Falco tossed his gear in his room and followed the others.

  "We have a great tradition of cooking contests, and all the youngsters earn their keep plus pocket money waiting tables. So sometimes the food can be a bit odd, when a new recipe just doesn't work out.'

  Tonight's offering of buffalo calf steak was tender and delicious, the vegetables fresh, the dessert fruit. He'd nearly forgotten about fresh crisp apples and pears. Sweetened yoghurt to dip them in . . . "Civilization. I'd nearly forgotten what it was like."

  They hauled themselves back to their rooms, and Falco looked at the clean white sheets on the soft clean mattress, and forced himself out to the showers before shivering his way back inside to the softest night's sleep since they'd arrived in this odd future.

  In the morning, everyone seemed to know who he was, and looked him over with nods of satisfaction.

  "Mage, plus wizard with suppressed hormones." A cheerful young redheaded woman looked him over. "Possessed of gold, and in need of clothing. Don't look so apprehensive. We have good taste in clothing."

  "Er, Lava, right?" Falco looked around at all the powerful women and fought an urge to run away. "We met almost two years ago, in the middle of nowhere."

  "Yep. Nice to see you guys survived . . . umm . . . "

  "Max's Dad and brother are fine, they're staying down south. We came north, mining here and there."

  "Which is a good thing, because I need gold that hasn't doubled in price going through a broker." The second woman was short, and bright eyed. "I'm a jeweler." She looked less than twenty, dark haired with bright blue eyes.

  Falco perked up a bit. "My mom's a jeweler . . . I need to . . . write her and get her and Dad out here." Time to change the subject! "So . . . you guys are witches?"

  "Meh. Mix and match. Some of us are witches, some of us have one wizard gene, but no real grasp of power. We do a whole bunch of subtle stuff, all the fertilizer and pesticide spells and so forth. The Rip is kind of weird, even for a magical community."

  Two of the girls snickered. "And now Rustle's off to Ash . . . umm, on sort of a family emergency . . . so we witches will really be on holiday."

  The redheads looked worried. "Not Xen again! What happened?"

  "Oh, nothing new, but he's home now and Rustle popped off to coddle him a bit." The witch grinned. "One of our greatest scandals was Rustle having a son. He's in the Army, and got injured spying on those weird Oner people."

  Falco blinked. "I think my head hurts."

  Multiple giggles. "Come and eat, you'll get used to us."

  The redheads were exchanging whispers. The darker of the witches glared at them. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you four plotting to seduce Xen while he's in a healing sleep."

  "Why not?" the reddest of them grinned. "He's so powerful! And if he can't run away . . ."

  "Honestly. You guys are impossible!" The witch rolled her eyes. "Hi Falco. I'm Grape and this is Hazel. The farmer girls—that's what they call themselves and there's a whole lot more of them—are Lava, Kile, Nile and Gavi. That's Blue Jay who does the jewelry."

  Falco nodded, utterly convinced that even the longest, coldest, winter wouldn't be long enough for him to sort out the names.

  By noon they'd sold half their gold for a local script, and spent half of it on clothing. Some ready and some promised.

  Max and Falco got pulled into a group of mages, while Dobs met all the witches.

  Ras, the Archmage of Rip, was a man of about forty. Dark reddish brown hair, brown eyes studying the newcomers. "You're both young . . . Orion, try them in a square with Kevi."

  Orion waved them off to a corner, and pointed across the room, and gave a summoning wave. A thin boy wiggled through the crowd. Black hair, green eyes, determined and se
rious expression.

  "Kevi, this is Max and Falco. Let's see how they're trained."

  "Right." Kevi stepped into the south position, shoulders back like he was facing a major task. Or foe.

  Falco walked around to the east, and Max took west. Drop shields, open up to these completely new people . . . Falco swallowed and started lowering his mental shield.

  Three brilliant glows. Max is getting strong, and Orion and Kevi are . . . amazing.

  :: Basic exercises first. :: Orion passed a packet of energy to him. Falco passed it to Kevi, who passed it to Max, Max back to Orion. More energy, a stream that circled and connected to itself, and gathered power as they all pulled from the environment and added it to the stream.

  :: Oh, excellent. You two are smooth. What have you been doing lately? ::

  Falco pulled out the memory of the compass reaching deep into the Rip River and pulling out sediments.

  :: Ah, you had some powerful old men working with you. What happened? ::

  A flash of fury and terror from Max, the memory of running to Dob's rescue. Two miners stunned, ten closing in. Dobs staggering, blood on her face. As they raced down the street the rider out of nowhere. The horse striking out, the man kicking one in the head as he drew his sword . . . The brief fight, Max swinging Dobs out of the circle of men as the tall dark stranger bashed the miners into submission. Cringing would-be killers shrinking back, pointing. "He paid us to kill her!"

  Pointing at his father.

  Max winced away from the remembered shock of realization. The compass snapped.

  "Oh." Orion sighed. "Sorry."

  "He didn't . . . he didn't want me marrying a witch." Max turned and walked away.

  Falco sighed. "And he was the archmage. We . . . just left. And moved our mining to a completely different area."

  Kevi bounced on his heels. "Did that man just . . . pop out of nowhere?"

  Falco nodded. "He didn't give us his name or anything. He just mounted up and rode off."

  "Damn! A baby god! Did he ride into the sunset? That's the whole archetype." Kevi was all wide-eyed and excited.

  Orion nodded. "From old novels. The tall dark stranger who rides into town, beats up the bad guys and rides off into the sunset."

  Max walked back. "What do you mean by baby god?"

  "People who are extremely magically strong can be warped into an archetype, just like the old gods." Orion frowned. "In your memory, you never really saw his face. I wonder who it was."

  "Is." Kevi bounced on his heels. "Xen says he got summoned the first time when he was sixteen. Sound asleep in bed, then he was on Pyrite out in the woods helping some lost agents. He said he thought it was just a dream, until years later."

  Orion nodded. "This is the first time I've heard of this one. Interesting."

  "Interesting!" Kevi threw his hands up in the air. "Is that all you can say?"

  Falco snickered. "Do you actually want to be a . . . baby god?"

  "Oh yeah! Think about the archetypes that are available! Like, like Robin Hood, the Saint, Black Bart, Zorro, the Lone Ranger! All the masked men, the thieves that are really heroes! And explorers, gamblers, pirates, and . . . "

  Orion gave him a friendly slap to the head. "You're an idiot, but I like you anyway. Let's go freeze our asses off and see if we can do that sediment lift without getting eaten by a water lizard."

  No. They dropped a lot of hot water and crocs on their heads, though. The spectators jumped in to deal with the rain of reptiles, laughing. And the crocs that didn't survive the fall were hauled off to be turned into dinner.

  "You eat those things?" Falco watched the Farmer Girls descending on a croc, knives in hand.

  "Mostly just the tails. The hides make good boots though. You'll see." Kevi was back to his serious mode.

  Trying to look older? Hoping to catch an archetype? Don't think that's how it would work. Scary idea. I just want to be . . . well. A gold miner, I suppose. Or, maybe work on steam engines and experiment with magic and electricity. Nothing huge and grand. Definitely not anything anyone would call a baby god.

  The witches had seen the whole thing. A laughing Dobs hauled the now shivering Max off to their room. Kevi hauled Falco off to the main hotsprings pool.

  "It's safe, for now. The maniacs worked off their libido over the last few nights."

  "Umm, they don't really have, like, orgies do they?"

  "Ha!" Kevi shed his dripping clothes and jumped in.

  Oh . . . .

  "Stop looking like that. I like girls, not boys."

  Falco could feel his face heating, and stripped down and climbed in.

  "So, tell me about this murderous archmage. Korbin says you're from Scoone?"

  "Marcus Olsen." Falco decided to ignore the bit about Scoone. "He's . . . We keep telling him that we can get rich just mining. But it's like he can't help himself. He buys gold from the miners and he sells it in town—but his scales aren't true. He just has to be one up on them all. And . . . some of the people he buys from look more like bandits than miners. He just says that's a useful part of the overall power structure. He's got a few of his old mages to go along with him. At least, now that Max and I are gone, he doesn't have a full compass."

  "Huh. Maybe Ras and Havi ought to have a word with him. Let him know that magic used for criminal purposes isn't allowed."

  Falco gulped. "Marcus is very strong, and the other four are too. Max's big brother isn't that strong, yet. But he's stronger than Max."

  "Right. They'd better take Cor and Siggi along with them. So . . . where do we find them?

  "Southern Hell. They're talking about buying a ghost town and . . . doing everything a town could need."

  "Which is great. So long as they're honest." Kevi nodded. "A little sharp dealing, and not checking where the sellers got their gold . . . well, miners don't take to being questioned. So really, it doesn't matter."

  Falco huffed out a breath. "Yeah. If only he hadn't tried to kill Dobs."

  "Oh. Yeah. He definitely needs to be talked to."

  Rustle, the local head witch returned, and let everyone know the apparently very popular Xen was home and healing. She eyed the Farmer girls. "He just needs to be left alone and allowed to sleep." Then she gestured Falco away. "Ras says you need to join our wizard classes. Usually the wizards from here go to the Wizards School outside of Ash, but we'll do some, umm, pretraining here so Nil doesn't get too sarcastic about mages. We'll start up a new class this afternoon, at the east end of the greenhouse. You should join us. We'll also see if you've got any dimensional talents."

  Falco swallowed. Dimensional?

  "Yes, because you've got two power genes, you may be able to do dimensional work. The best way to find out is to try it."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Winter Solstice 1395

  Rip Crossing, Desolation Territory

  Falco was the oldest one there. Well, apart from Ras, Rustle, and a new man called Havi.

  Two boys, obviously twins, were shoulder to shoulder facing them.

  "We've both grasped power. It just makes sense to train up our wizard talents right from the start."

  "Val and Drei are the right age to train. I thought they'd come." Ras looked more amused than irritated, but there was a bit of that in there as well.

  The other twin wrinkled his nose. "Aren't they here? They aren't home."

  Ras rubbed his nose. "It's pretty late in the season for them to head this way. They must have found some lucrative work down south."

  Four other teenagers drifted in, joined the seven or eight already milling around.

  Havi took over. "All right. Line up with everyone, and we'll see what you've got. Falco, this is umm . . . this one is Aldo and that one is Neil. Brats? This is Falco. I think the rest of you all know each other? Good. Now turn and face the sun. We are going to concentrate on collecting the energy of the light, not the heat. Both are electromagnetic radiation, but the light is a higher frequency and . . . more conc
entrated power. It is easier to turn to some tasks, so even though you may not use it often, you need to know how to use it. Hold your hands out, see the light on your hands? Now turn your hands, palm to palm and squeeze the light, concentrate it . . . Mackey, not the heat. Release it. Now think of energy that is vibrating faster. Full of energy, bright white light. Now strangle it down to a ball of light."

  The winter light was bright, pouring through the glass. Falco felt himself reaching for the faint heat and tried to picture vibrations, to concentrate on the white light. He tipped his hands and curved his fingers in, capturing the light, squeezing it until it glowed gently in his grasp.

  "Excellent, Falco. Have you worked with light before?"

  Falco shook his head, half mesmerized by the light. "Would it be easier to slice rocks with? It feels different, somehow."

  "It's not that simple. It's a complex combination of the user, his or her training, and the power. The power from light may be easier to use for slice now, but once you are older, the more subtle use of mage power might work—for you—right then. Can you dissipate the energy?"

  Falco opened his grip and pictured the light pouring out and lighting the ground for a moment. A circle of rock sparkled for a moment, then darkened. His hands were slightly warm.

  "Nice. Now, can you see this?"

  Ras reached out and pantomimed grabbing a large bubble. Falco could nearly see it, a faint iridescent sphere.

  "Well, sort of. Unless you mean something more substantial than an almost transparent blueish soap bubble."

  "Nope. That's exactly what I mean. Can you touch it?"

  Falco reached out to barely touch the surface. His hand passed through without resistance. He pulled back and crooked a finger to barely make contact. It popped. He jerked back.

  "Sorry, sorry!"

  Ras laughed. "No problem. So, you get to work on dimensions as well. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to work with the others."

  Then Falco got matched up with Kevi, Neil, and Aldo, for a bit of mage work.