by Pam Uphoff
"You guys mix and match all the disciplines, don't you?" Falco looked over at a couple of girls. "Wizards, not witches, right?"
"Wrong. They've got a wizard gene and a witch gene. Really nice combination, the witches that want to advance tend to try for it, for their kids." Kevi grinned. "Yeah, we know that they always said that was a bad combination. T'aint so."
"We've got wizard and mage." Aldo scowled over at the girls. "They say they're more powerful."
Kevi sniffed. "That depends on a whole bunch of other stuff. C'mon. Circle up."
They didn't bother with the whole bloody grip thing, just grabbed hands and Kevi sent a small pulse of energy around the circuit, let them build it up and open up their perception to the air above them. It was still, with no wind, so the warm ground warmed the air up to the canyon rim, then dissipated. Cold air, below freezing. Getting colder, with less energy in it as they rose.
:: The simplest weather modification is to add heat to a large volume of air. That causes the air mass to rise, displacing other air, taking humid air up to where it's cold enough to condense and rain. If you can start a large draft, you can really build up a thunderhead and get a gusher. The real trick is getting it to rain where you want it to, not hundreds of miles downwind. And of course, getting it to stop when you've had enough. I'm going to do a small volume, since we don't actually want more snow. Feel this . . . ::
Falco felt Kevi doing something . . . pulling in the heat around them and then releasing it as heat again far above their heads. The warmed air rose slowly, fading as it passed the limits of how far they could mentally follow it. Their perception faded, the power of the circle dropped, and released them all.
"Whoa. How do you reach that far up?" Neil was gawping a bit at Kevi.
"I'm older than you are, and I grasped power earlier than you brats did. And Falco's really well trained." Kevi grinned across at Falco. "And all four of us being wizard mages enabled us to mesh really well. Huh. That was pretty cool."
Ras slapped the back of Kevi's head. "Show off. Go feed everyone, that was good work."
Kevi grinned and led the way to a table loaded with sandwiches and hot tea. "So did your mom send any good horses with you?"
Twin eye rolls. "Yeah, she sent a couple of her young stallions, to get them out of her hair, she said. I think she wants to sell them, but not until they're well trained and will bring the top prices. Want to see them?" Aldo looked around at Falco.
"I've got a team, really don't need any more."
Orion sneered. "Worst horses in the barn."
"They've got good legs." Falco leaped to the defense of the old mares. And followed the other three out to the barn.
Suzy and Squeek got pitying pats.
Neil shrugged. "Their legs are a bit beat up, but at least they're straight."
Falco sighed. "I think they're pretty old."
Which led to a dental examination.
Aldo shrugged. "Smooth, so, over twenty. How long have you had them?"
"Oh . . . almost eight months now." Falco squirmed. "I don't actually know much about horses."
Triple eye rolls. And a tour of the barn. Even in their winter coats, the horses managed to be glossy. Their legs lacked the lumps and bumps from twenty years of hard work. And probably owners as ignorant as he was. Falco sighed over the twins' pair. A great huge black behemoth and a slightly smaller, slimmer bay.
He rubbed the bay's itchy spots and sighed. "It seems like a shame to make anything so beautiful pull a wagon."
"Oh, we'll probably take them into Karista and sell them as fancy carriage horses. Pity they aren't a better match, that'd bring in even more money."
Falco looked down the aisle. "There are a lot of black horses here."
"Phantom." Kevi said. "Lady Rustle's stallion is the sire and grandsire of half the horses here. You ought to breed your old mares before you leave in the Spring."
Falco gave the bay a last scratch and turned away. "I don't think working horses need foals." Even if they did just mostly graze while we mined. We did make a few trips with heavy loads.
Sniffs of disdain from the horse lovers.
"And after all, why breed poor quality mares?" Falco stumped back to Suzy and Squeek to pet them.
"Oh, they're just old and beat up. I'll give them some wine that'll perk them right up." Aldo grinned. "Or I could sell you Tiddly Winks."
"Tid . . . not that beautiful bay!"
"You can rename him." Neil chimed in from the other side.
"Careful Falco. They come from a family of horse traders." Kevi trotted the few steps from the back door of the barn to the end door of the greenhouse.
Falco hunched his shoulders and followed. It wasn't that cold down here in the Rip, but the dampness just sucked the heat out of anyone outside.
Dobs went out that night for the full moon ceremony, and all the men laughed at Max's fears that they wouldn't let her return.
"These are not the Mount Frost Witches." Kevi snickered. "Rustle's the biggest scandal ever."
"Scandals, plural. Three at least." Orion grinned. "Mind you, it was a nasty gang rape, so I don't think calling her a Black Widow is fair. And then giving birth to a baby boy! Oh Shock and horror! And then keeping company with the Auld Wulf. Not. Done."
"Auld . . . " Falco's tongue tripped over the odd pronunciation, and he choked as he realized who they must mean. "The . . . God of War?"
"Yep. The real deal." Kevi grinned. "He lives in Ash. Heck, he was the first person to live there. Then Harry and Gisele moved there."
Falco swallowed. Grace. Harry might know what happened to her. "Harry lives in this Ash place?"
"Nah, he moved to the Crossroads." Kevi waved at the front door. "We've got a corridor to Ash, and they've got a corridor to Crossroads, so really, it's so easy to get anywhere, we might as well all be one big village."
I could go ask. I . . . ought to . . . it's been a thousand years. Even if she was still alive, she'd be old. Probably wouldn't remember me. Except Mercy was always bubbling her. And something dire happened to her mother. What if Grace is also trapped in a bubble? He looked out the glass doors. Still quiet and dark. A few hours shy of midnight.
He got up and grabbed his coat. Headed out the front doors.
"What's up all of a sudden?" Kevi had followed him.
"The God of Travelers. I have to ask him something."
Chapter Fourteen
Winter Solstice 1395
Crossroads, Foothills Province
Falco eyed the arch they'd come through. There was another, fifty feet away. "Does that go to Ash? Where's the corridor to this Crossroads place?"
"C'mon." Kevi stepped through and Falco followed.
Wallowed through snow drifts, following the other mage along what looked in the moonlight like the side of a big barn. The far west and south sides of the barn were free of snow.
Kevi pointed at a spot on the wall. "Crossroads."
Falco could see a faint outline, and stepped forward, feeling with his hand. Put his hand through the illusion of the weathered wood, and stepped through.
To a brick pavement, illuminated by the last light of the setting sun. Free of the snow piled up to the side. He turned. He recognized the building. More or less. It had been painted and repaired a bit over the . . . millennium. Hardly surprising. He walked out to the road. Also cleared of snow. The smooth pavement made him homesick. A road made by the gods. I'd forgotten all about their stone work. He edged up to the door. Stalled out. Do I really want to know?
"Know what?" A mild male voice behind him.
He spun, scrambled to keep his feet on the icy floor. Of course he recognized the dark old man. Falco gulped. "What happened to Grace. I . . . we were friends, a long time ago."
"Ah, yes. One of her scapegrace friends Mercy was always railing about. She looked for you, when they raided the museum."
Falco blinked. Had a sudden picture of Grace as an eight foot tall, muscular valkyrie wielding a s
word as she stormed a god's stronghold.
Harry laughed. "Not at all. Come inside."
Falco turned and opened the door. Stepped into warmth, mellow light from lamps and a fire in a huge fireplace.
A door to the side flew open. "Do we have an actual guest?" A girl with long dark hair. And behind her . . .
Grace hadn't hardly changed. Couldn't be more than three or four years older than when he'd seen her last.
She glanced from him to Harry, then her head jerked back. "Falco? Falco!"
Falco stumbled across the room and met her halfway in a tight hug. "Oh, man, I figured if you were still alive you'd be an old lady."
She started giggling, hugging him back.
"So . . . you're staying here? What about your mother? What . . . ?"
Grace pushed away, grabbed his shirt and shook him. "Where were you! I searched for you guys in Art's basement, but you weren't there!"
"We escaped, and . . . when we went back, something had happened, there were smoke stains and this hole in the floor . . . "
"Answer killed him. He kidnapped a witch, and we went to rescue her. That's when I looked. Oh! If only I'd known you'd gotten out! How did you get out?"
"I just, I just . . . scratched at the bubble thing I was in, and it finally opened. There were all these statues standing around. I found Max, got him out. Then we went upstairs. All the men, the Mages, and Dob's Pyramid. I got her out, then . . . " He blew out a breath. "Then I got out Max's dad, the Archmage. I figured he'd know what to do. That was a big mistake. He . . ."
"That must have been almost two years ago! Where have you been?"
"Mining gold. We . . . well, there was trouble, with the other mages." Falco let her drag him to a chair, and didn't mind at all that she was hanging onto him, and sitting pressed up against him. A knot he hadn't realized existed loosened up somewhere inside. The last bit of my old life that I couldn't bear to lose. And I didn't lose it.
The black haired girl brought them a plate full of finger food, a pot of tea and two cups. They devoured it all and talked for what seemed like hours. Grace's adventures, escaping from her mother, Falco's adventures gold mining. He hugged her when she talked about her mother. Grace laughed at the avalanche of gravel, gold and alligators. Sat up furious, when he talked about the men who attacked Dobs.
". . . so Max and Dobs and I left them, and went off to mine on our own. We're spending the winter in Rip Crossing, because Max and Dobs got married and Dobs is, like, out to here pregnant."
"Yes!" Grace threw her hands up in the air and danced around in a circle. "And we're going there right now!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the chair and toward the door.
A grinning Harry stepped out of the way and held out his heavy coat. Falco snatched it as he passed and tried to wrap Grace up in it as she towed him around the corner and through the wall.
Even the snow drifts couldn't slow her, and she hauled him at full speed into the Inn. She spotted Max and finally dropped his hand to shoot across the rotunda and pounce on him.
Falco followed, grinning. "Found an old friend," in answer to Kevi's raised eyebrows.
". . . can't have missed you guys by more than a month!" Grace looked around.
"Dobs is out with these witches for some . . . "
"Oh! I know right where they are!" Grace turned toward the door, stopped and turned back. "You two . . . don't you dare disappear."
They shook their heads, and she turned and bolted for the front doors.
"Where did you find her?" Max eyed Falco.
"I learned that Harry's tavern was just two quick corridors away, and . . . I just had to ask him what had happened to her. And there she was." Falco looked at the doors. "She's been living at the Tavern for two years, and Mercy let her out a fair amount the last couple of years. I guess she must be about eighteen."
Max bit his lip. "Maybe . . . it's time to be more open about where we come from. I suspect anyone who recognized her will figure it out anyway."
Falco nodded. "Yeah."
He was poked from the rear. Kevi, with the Farmer Girls behind him. "Yeah we want to know."
Falco shrugged. "We spent about a thousand years as statues in the God of Art's Museum. We escaped. And here we are, trying to fit in and figure out what kind of place we've landed in."
"Huh. A thousand . . . " Kevi's eyes unfocused as he thought. "Before the comet fell. Are you from . . . New Tokyo?"
"Yeah."
"And you were helping move the comets?" Orion joined them.
"Nah. We got stuffed in the basement while the grownups got to work. Not that—judging by the results--they could do anything."
The groups around them all sort of nodded.
"Even the Gods. They saved a few places, and had people in their homes." One of the redheads shrugged. "It's just stuff in the history books to us, now."
Kevi nodded. "The comet eighteen years ago, that one they handled, but mostly because Rustle is so good with Gravity."
Orion nodded. "And it may have been smaller. What do those adults of yours say?"
"Well, I only let out the Archmage and five other mages, so far. And they don't say much about it."
Max nodded. "My father is . . . not interested in rehashing the past. He's working at getting rich and worming his way into the government." He scowled. "We ought to have started with Falco's father. He's a much nicer man than mine."
Falco sighed. "Maybe we ought to go back and start getting people out. Dob's mother's Pyramid is there too. We should talk to Rustle about them."
"Trained mages. We'll get them set up, although falling into a gold rush, they can probably do it themselves." Orion looked around. "In the spring, when everyone heads out. We can bring your people here, get them up to speed on the kingdom, and the laws, and how to go about filing mining claims and so forth."
Max nodded. "All the stuff we learned by trial and error. That would be fantastic. If only some of those mages weren't . . . unprincipled opportunists. Like my father."
Everyone sort of drifted off, with various speculations. Max led off to the restaurant, and sat where he could keep an eye on the doors. Falco sat . . . It must be well past midnight, why are so many people still awake? And is anyone manning the kitchen?
Korbin followed them. "So . . . what did you guys, personally, do, or I suppose what were you training up to do with your magic?"
Falco nudged out a chair and Korbin sat.
Max grinned. "Falco was building steam engines. His dad's compass had a nice business making pharmaceuticals, my father's was a weather compass. He wanted me to learn weather handling so I could step in when one of the older mages retired. My older brother Paul studied pharmaceuticals, I think he was eyeing the other compass."
"Huh. We do a fair bit of that ourselves." Korbin turned to look at Falco. "But steam engines?"
"I was rebuilding a car . . . but I'd been wondering about electricity. How it could be affected by magic, and whether there was a new field out there I could pioneer." Falco shrugged. "I suppose you guys have that all figured out by now . . . except there aren't any cars out here, are there?"
"No . . . hmm, you know, it would be fun to build one . . . "
Which led to much sketching and drawing. When the witches dragged in around dawn they were still hard at their plans.
Dobs hauled Max off to bed, and Grace took the room next to Falco. "Because you guys aren't getting away from me . . . and it's going to take all winter to build a car."
Falco tossed and turned all night, and in the morning started organizing.
"Motor. Steam or electric? Fuel for the steamer? We used oil—whale oil, olive oil, some refined petro. If electric . . . is there a way to charge batteries magically? Umm, do you guys know what batteries are? Umm, this is going to be tough. Then the body of the vehicle. We can start with a light carriage, but sooner or later we'll be going too fast for simple lever steering. The method I remember was called rack-and-pinion. This is h
ow it worked . . . "
The witches were consulted about metal working. Dobs and Grace started working out the steering from Falco's two year old memory of a diagram of rack-and-pinion steering . . . until Dobs bent over and clutched her belly.
Twelve hours of helping Max through periodic panic attacks—which he sensibly dumped on them, not Dobs—and a tiny little girl was wailing about her entrance into the cold cruel world.
"I don't think it's actually time for the 'T' name, but Answer and I split up the names for this year, and 'Tiger' is the next name for Rip witches." The midwife was a cheerful brunette with a competent manner, an age mate of Rustle's. And a witch. Ask, by name.
Rustle had been in and out as well, and congratulated the exhausted parents.
Grace, rather appalled by the whole process, retreated into trying to decipher Falco's drawings. Or make fun of them. Much giggling was to be found in drawings of various things.
And a bit of kissing before they departed for their own rooms, and a few dips in the hot pools late at night, and before the winter was over, they moved into a single larger room with a bigger bed . . .
Then Harry came by to check on Grace, and was pulled into the car project.
"Mechanics were never my field. What you need to do is check through Wolf's library."
Falco swallowed nervously.
Orion slipped into the room and accosted Harry. "I've misplaced two brothers. Do you know which road Val and Drei are on?"
"The traveling salesmen? I suspect so." The old man's eyes half closed, then his brows met in a frown. "They're . . . wandering and confused. Somewhere south of here. I can't pin them down, unless they call me. I don't quite know what the problem is, two god's sons? What could affect them like this?"
Chapter Fifteen
Late Winter 1395
Desolation Territory
Falco exchanged glances with Max and Dobs. "Can they open bubbles? Could the Archmage have talked them into releasing more mages?"
Harry looked around . . . "Oh. Art's museum."
Orion sat up in alarm. "How many trained mages were there?"