by Pam Uphoff
Eyes widened, and bodies shifted a bit away from Rael. No one protested that single word.
The soft scrape of a chair, then a thin woman stepped out into the lantern light. Ancient. Powerful. Straight and moving easily despite her obvious age.
Rael stood up quickly as the old witch strolled out to look Rael up and down.
"I am Answer." Her blue eyes flicked to the other witches. "Bring her to the hotsprings tomorrow."
Chapter Five
Meet the Witches
"Weak." The old witch looked her up and down again. "Dependent. Running after a man."
Rael blinked at the head witch, the Senior Sister, they called her. Answer. "Actually my president sent me to check on the status of a very important person."
Sneer. "You look young, but I can see you must be nearing the half century mark. And you haven't the complexity of a woman who's given birth. Such a waste, you seem so strong. Magically."
Rael unclenched her jaw. "And how many children do you have?" In truth, the old witch's glow was both incredibly complex and frighteningly strong.
"Three. Ten granddaughters. Nineteen great granddaughters. Eight great great granddaughters—so far. And unfortunately, a great great grandson, and three great great great grandsons." Snort. "Here. You lot don't count."
"Xen? You aren't proud of . . . ?"
Snort. "We don't have any need for men beyond brief use. We are not weak, we are not subservient, and we should not have sons." She eyed Rael. "At least you are well trained. No doubt your president finds you useful. Your genuine infatuation creates a vulnerability in the man. He's amazingly weak for someone so magically strong. Not terribly bright, and soft in the head as well. But do join us . . ."
It was certainly an eye opening experience. Such different training. Such different talents. Such different methods. So many very strong women.
"What about healing? Your Dr. Heath can do some astonishing repairs."
A snort from an older witch. Delight, if Rael was remembering correctly. "Lady Gisele is a Goddess, not a witch."
"But she's got the witch gene." A voice from the back.
"So does the Auld Wulf. Does that make him a witch?" From someone Rael hadn't been introduced to.
Then the discussion—and practice—of telekinesis in medical treatment was discussed. Rael had picked up bits here and there—mostly from Paer and Xen—and managed to get an approving nod from Answer.
"Your discipline is excellent, and your micro manipulations good." Then the old witch's brows lowered in disapproval. "If you insist on consorting with that person, you really ought to use him to advance."
Rael stiffened . . . and felt all the strong, complex, women around her. I must feel like a child to them. Strong . . . and simple.
She shut that thought down and turned a bit to watch a woman half her age turn a lump of copper into a saucepan. Dammit. We need to study these people's magic.
Everyone's magic got used, stretched, and perhaps expanded.
And soaking in the hotsprings after was rather nice as well. And she was much too worldly to be embarrassed by the casual nudity. Really.
She eyed the two witches heading her way. One complex and strong, one very complex and very strong. A young mother and a . . . baby goddess?
"I'm Obsidian, and this is my sister Topaz. We're Xen's aunts." The older one had light brown hair and blue eyes. The younger was blonde with hazel eyes. And similar features, and they certainly did look quite a bit like Rustle. But then they all did, to her untrained eyes.
Local phenotypes, and less variation, after at least one bottleneck.
And some darn pretty types, too! The tawny dark-blonde hair, tanned skin, with golden-brown eyes is striking. Rael blinked. But I'm sure they don't turn into lions at the full moon.
Demoiselle and Egret joined them.
Demi grinned. "So you survived Answer, and now you have to face the aunts."
Obsidian sniffed. "Now, now, we're being nice. Rustle likes her. And anyway, she's obviously one of Bran Butcher's, so she hardly qualifies as a . . . Oner."
Rael suspected she was blushing. Time to change the subject. "I'm finding your training methods very different than ours."
"Oh?"
Rael nodded toward the young girls playing in the upper pool. "We teach individual abilities only, not this triad cooperation. That's the first thing I noticed. Then I noticed that you teach them the large scale stuff first. We start with tiny manipulations. As we get older, we start doing the large power gathers, the large physical manipulations. What your youngsters can do astonishes me."
"How tiny?"
"Microscopic, once we get good at it. Most of our electronics are at least partially magifactured." Rael shrugged. "And then we get into the mental spells, and energy manipulation. And, well, outside of teaching and medicine, we don't use much magic in our daily lives."
She looked around the pools full of women . . . "Rustle . . . didn't come?"
The two aunts swapped glances.
Obsidian raised up enough to check something, then sank back down. "Answer ejected Rustle from the Pyramid when Rustle was eighteen or so. She formed the Rip Crossing Pyramid, and spends a lot of time there. Well, not right now, while she's keeping an eye on Xen, but she never attends regular lessons here, and rarely major ceremonials."
Topaz grinned, head down where it couldn't be seen by many. "When she's in town, on one of the equinoxes, Answer feels obligated to invite her. Grinding her teeth."
"And grinding them even harder when Rustle politely declines." Obsidian grinned. "Now I think I've soaked long enough. If you're done, Rael, I'll walk back to the winery with you and check on my favorite nephew."
***
Pyrite and Carousel were nibbling weeds along the edge of the vineyard.
:: Don’t worry. The big scary man gave me a grape leaf so I’d know what they taste like and told me to not eat any more. ::
Xen laughed from the front steps where he was sunning himself. The bright sun caught the faint fuzz of hair on his scalp, and his pale new skin was reddening.
"Sunburn's a bad idea, boy!" Obsidian called.
Xen grinned. "I've only been out here for a few minutes. And I need to even out my tan." He rose and stretched.
"Likely story." Obsidian gave and received a hug.
Rael blinked at the fingernails on his left hand. "How'd they grow so fast?"
"In a Speed bubble. Twenty-to-one ratio. For me it's been fifteen days since we had dinner together."
"Yikes!"
Xen glanced at his aunt. "So did Answer behave?"
"By her standards. Just a few sneers and jeers, but Rael's training and discipline impressed her. She even said so."
Xen nodded. "She just criticized everything else, right?"
"Pretty much. Well, now that I see you looking so good, I'm going to check on the children. I enjoyed meeting you, Rael." Obsidian's gaze swung back to Xen. "You should bring her around more often." She stepped back and vanished with a faint puff of disturbed air.
Rael sighed. "I can teleport almost fifty meters, now."
Xen chuckled. "Your specialty, I swear, is, getting through shields. You should go impress Nil. But make sure he knows it’s a demonstration, not an attack."
Then he wrapped her up in a hug and grope. Drew back to kiss her. "Mine. Forever."
"Ooo! Getting possessive?" She leaned against his warm muscles. "And only for another hundred and fifty years or so. Oners don't live forever. Not that either of us is likely to die of old age no matter what our genes do."
"True. But still." He rubbed his cheek against the top of her head. Held her.
"Don't fall asleep on your feet."
"Umm? S'okay." His arms tightened . . . and an odd spell flowed through her . . .
She swung an arm and thumped him.
"Oww!"
"You were falling asleep. C'mon. Back inside with you. And I think I don't dare tuck you into bed." She chivvied him as far
as the stairs, and fled.
Don't seduce sleeping gods? I think maybe it's not even safe to hug them!
Chapter Six
Off To See The Wizard
At breakfast, Urial and Dogwood gave her excited and somewhat garbled directions to find Archwizard Nil, spoken of in wide-eyed excited-scared tones.
"And it's on the equator! It'll be hot there!"
Which sent her back to her room to make a short sleeved shirt the innermost of her layering and leave off the tights beneath the riding pants.
Brr! This is what an Ice Age World calls spring?
Out in the barn, Mink rolled her eyes. "It’s easy to find. Did you pass the sheep farm when you rode in? Notice that stumpy tower? Go around behind the tower. The dimensional gate is in a courtyard with an ordinary gate keeping the livestock from wandering back and forth. If no one's in the buildings, just follow the path down to the beach. They do all their practicing on the beach."
"You've been there?"
"Sure. Sometimes I take horses back and forth, or deliver stuff."
After a day off, Carousel was ready to go, and happily galloped and trotted the ten miles. The tower, while stubby, wasn't really ugly, what with big windows with sills full of greenery, and the surrounding orchard in bloom.
There was a path through the orchard, did it go around to the gate?
"Are you going to the Wizard School?" A high voice from up in a tree.
"Oh, hello! Yes, is this the path?"
Shaking branches and a fall of flowers; a thin figure jumped down from the tree. "Yeah, follow me. I'll open the gate for you." The girl was maybe seven or eight years old, a head-full of curly blonde hair bouncing as she galloped down the path. Talking all the way. "Grampa has pinto horses too. I like them! Are you a wizard?"
Carousel’s ears were perked up. :: A people foal! I remember them from the farm . . . they take a long time to grow. You wouldn’t think their dams could stand it. ::
Rael giggled. :: But their sires and grandparents often help. And this one’s pretty independent. ::
:: True. And she has a wonderful mane. ::
The child dragged open a wooden gate to a circular yard where a circle of blue sky and grassy sand dunes or sandy hills stood unsupported.
"Right. Thank you!" Rael turned Carousel toward the . . . beautiful summer day across the gate.
"Say hi to Granpa Nil!"
***
Rael grabbed a hank of mane as she aimed Carousel at the gate, but the mare hopped through like an old hand and trotted down the sandy double track in front of them. Rael released the mane and sat up straighter. "Sorry. I’d heard that gates were worse than corridors, for horses."
Carousel just snorted.
Rael spotted two long green-tiled roofs on the far side of the nearest hills. She looked back . . . rolling low hills, the grass looking greener and thicker that direction. As the track crossed the swale between the low hills, Rael spotted the buildings below the roofs. Two three-story ornate marble edifices, with columns and carvings and steps as broad as the whole building . . . The road was paved for a few hundred meters . . .
And that was it.
Just two huge buildings, plunked down in the middle of rolling hills.
Rael cocked her head at a sound . . . Surf? She stopped Carousel in front of the first building. No sign of anyone, and lowering her shields confirmed that both buildings were empty.
“Some Wizards’ School! What did Mink say? If no one's there just follow the path to the beach?” She peeled out of her jacket. Wiped sweat off her forehead, and took off the long sleeved shirt as well. Carousel moved out as soon as she picked up the reins and headed for the path.
The hills lost more vegetation, becoming definitely sand dunes and then beach.
Carousel slammed on her brakes and snorted at the big waves.
"It's just water, silly."
A snort of disbelief. :: Water is not supposed to do that! ::
Rael spotted movement to the left, and leaned that direction. Carousel kept a suspicious eye on the aggressive water as she headed left, resisting Rael's attempt to get her out onto the firm wet sand.
Rael could feel the power usage ahead, and spotted fireballs soaring out over the waves.
Nice! No fire hazard.
The fireballs stopped as the two tall figures turned toward her. She blinked as she recognized the closest one.
"Duke Dydit. I didn't realize . . ."
The tall, good-looking man just grinned. "That I didn't stay at Ambassador Never's side full time? Rael Withione, correct? I don't think we’ve ever actually spoken." His sleeves and pant legs were rolled up . . . unlike the decrepit beach bum coming up behind him.
Rael looked beyond the ragged cut off pants and threadbare shirt and into the eyes of a predator. She swallowed. "Xen suggested I should come and impress Nil with my shield piercing abilities."
The old man eyed her, then turned his head. "Bari! Come take the lady's horse." He looked back at Rael. "And then we'll just see who impresses whom."
Maybe I ought to have just stuck to kissing sleeping gods.
Rael slid off and handed the reins to a wiry muscled carrot top of a boy, and walked out to meet the Archwizard.
"Shield piercing, eh?"
She had to force herself to not squirm under that narrowed gleaming stare. "Well, it's more like sneaking through than piercing."
"Indeed? Get through this."
Rael boggled at the sheer strength of the physical shield, then raised her own as she reached and felt the frequency of . . . the first layer. Matched that, matched the second, reached and tapped the wizard, jerking her fingers back quickly as the man threw up another shield as he stepped back, startled.
"That . . . Yes. I am impressed." Nil turned to glare at Duke Dydit. "Get that smirk off your face."
Dydit grinned. "She’s almost a granddaughter-in-law. That gives me a right to smirk."
The old man glowered at him, and turned back to Rael. "So do you do the same to mental shields?" His hardened as he spoke.
She already had the frequency and double shielded to incoming before she matched frequencies. And whispered aloud the wizard's surface thoughts, "long it takes her to . . . Holy Cats!" and then shielded as hard as she could.
Then frequency shifting shields, energy shields, one of each . . .
It turned into a whole day exploration of her techniques, his adaptations, her adjustments . . .
They had to break several times to eat and drink and rest.
With students looking on wide-eyed.
"I think I interrupted your class."
"Wizards need to be flexible. It's good for them to see that even I have a few things to learn."
A chuckle from Dydit. "Like staying at least ten feet away from Oner Princesses? And hoping they don't know about warping light?"
Rael grinned. "It's not well known. So . . . has Xen had any luck flying?"
Fortunately there was a brisk wind off the ocean, so she demonstrated. Kiting up a hundred meters, circling a few times, and managing to make the smooth landing look easy and commonplace, rather than unusually good luck. She didn’t mention that her landings frequently involved plowing face-first into the ground.
"More kite flying and gliding than flying, really." She giggled at their expressions. "Learning to land is the hard part."
Nil was frowning. "Just a pull, and shaped shield wings."
"A head wind, and a tail for stability. Frankly it's showy and fun, but not terribly useful except in an emergency when you need to get down from a high building or aircar in a hurry."
Dydit grinned. "I think I'll wait till no one is looking before I give it a try."
Rael pointed. "I'd recommend starting from up on a sand dune. For a soft landing. Although anchoring your pull might be harder in loose sand. And, umm, Dydit? Your heavy build is going to make it difficult."
He eyed her wiry muscled thinness and nodded. “It may take a rather large surfa
ce area to get me aloft.”
Rael rode home in the twilight.
:: Sheep are really boring . . . and there were a couple of really scary black goats. I didn’t like the way they looked at me! ::
Rael nodded. “I’ve heard about the black goats. They’re evil wizards under a transformation spell . . . I didn’t realize there were any left . . . Or that there were any new ones.”
:: They were nasty! The suggestions they made! Goats should not talk! ::
Rael giggled and agreed. And back at the inn, wolfed down a delicious dinner. "Bison? Huh."
"Yeah, we import it from the New Lands." Urial grinned. "You should go see the Rip while you're here. It's neat."
Chapter Seven
The Rip
"So . . . this Rip I hear about. Is it really a mid-continent spreading ridge?" She'd caught Xen just coming down the stairs when she walked up to the winery in the morning.
"Yep. Hang on a sec . . . " He tapped at the kitchen fabber, then ducked into the bathroom.
Proof positive that this building is fourteen centuries old and imported from Earth. An inside bathroom.
Xen returned in clean clothes and a faint scent of soap. Rael reached up and rubbed his head. "Stubble! Just as I was getting used to the bald look."
"I'll keep it shaved, if that's your preference."
"No . . . but it's always nice to know I'll still think you're handsome if you go bald naturally."
"It'll never happen." He made a grabbing motion, loaded sandwiches and bottles into the dimensional bubble and stuck it on his arm. "But you definitely should see the Rip."
He touched her shoulder and she stepped back . . . onto stone in the bright sunshine.
He pointed behind her. "The Rip."
She was a few meters away from the lip of a canyon. She blinked as she mentally adjusted to the size . . . stark gray and black layers, hundreds of layers, eroded, broken, a colorless vista, the far side was easily five kilometers away, and looking down, a river jagged through the foggy bottom. A bridge soared from somewhere out of sight on this side, swooping out and down across the river, where her gaze was caught by the only spot of color. A building. At this distance it must be huge, sprawled on a flat layer of rock. More buildings, gray like their surroundings, became obvious once she knew where to look for them.