Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy

by Pam Uphoff

  28 Yusef 1401 yp

  Paris, Empire of the One

  "Hey, your boyfriend's in charge of Disco."

  Rael looked over at Ydro.

  "Well, temporarily. Apparently Comet Fall is getting together some magical mounted troops. They wanted that Prince Garit to train with them for a couple of weeks. Why not Xen?"

  Rael shook her head. "Ranking officer first? We'll have to see if Xen goes next."

  Fean looked over. "Rumor has it that some Teamers of ours grabbed a couple of those black goats and hauled them through the gate before Disco or Earth noticed. I'd love to see an analysis of them. I just refuse to believe . . . "

  Nods all around.

  Ajha looked around. "Anything else? Any excuse for some field work would be welcome."

  "I've been collecting info on these Purple people." Rael tapped fingernails on the table. Dammit, still can't get the cadence right, right handed. "They've got genetic engineering. Very similar to what we have, and what the Fallen, Arrivals and Arbolians have."

  "And a written record of the Exile." Baik put in. "Man, and I thought we were nasty to the Natives! Hard to believe the Prophets let them get away with any of the things the Purps say happened to the 'Experimental Animals' that . . . well . . . sorry. The Purps didn't have any of them exiled with them, so the old prejudices . . . are on display in their early history."

  Rael giggled. "Can you get near the Comet Fall records, yet?"

  "Not a hope. Their wing is packed solid with competing scanning crews. Unfortunately ours are more interested in the recent stuff than ancient history." Baik wrinkled her nose. "Eventually we'll get what we need now."

  Dan snickered. "I chatted up one of our scanners. She said Endi . . . er, Xen's group's report on their spy mission was a real eye-opener. I've requested a copy and got told I didn't have clearance. I'll bet Ajki can get a copy, though."

  Rael snorted. "Well, at least we can pick up the other worlds' stuff. I think Purple has promise. The ones with purple hair and skin are the top people, the purple hair and normal skin the underlings. Genetically speaking, they've got a recessive gene complex that is found in some birds, as part of their insertion packet, on Chromosome 18. It enables the manufacture of blue pigment. There's also a dominant red gene on their Chromosome 9 insertion. Very similar to the One version, but ours is subdominant. The red gene is so very common in their population, that while the Purps actually come in both blue and purple versions, the purple is much more common."

  She leaned forward and eyed Ajha. "But here's the good part. They have friendly relations with Earth. They trade regularly, and Disco, at their mutual insistence, has opened a permanent gate between them. Purps cross regularly. Diplomats, but mostly business men and workers. There are regular trading companies under contract to deliver goods to Earth, and they use Purple trucks and drivers."

  Ajha bit his lip as he thought. Nodded. "So if we could get people through the Purple World gate and established there . . . we could worm our way into a trading company, or just hire out as truckers, perhaps . . . And get all the info we'd need to infiltrate Earth itself. To get a gate beacon through to Earth. This has potential . . . Let's figure out how to get through the Purple gate undetected, for a start. And what the team over there might need . . . Dan, go take pictures of all their vehicles, and Fean, check for a regular traffic pattern . . . Baik back to the library . . . Hob, we're going to need to diddle a whole bunch of vidcams." He stopped and eyed Rael.

  She giggled. "Can I be in charge of distracting En . . . Xen?"

  Oh One. Did I just say that?

  ***

  "We've spotted a potential method of getting spies onto Earth. First by inserting them into the only society Earth actually gets along with." Subdirector Ajki tried to read Urfa's expression and body language. Calm, confident, open . . . what's he hiding behind it? He can't actually be calm, confident and nice can he?

  "These Purple people." Urfa eyed the proposal on his comp.

  "Yep. So we need to get sixteen people, with invisibility shields, and underneath that, native clothing and disguises, and all of their equipment and vehicles across the Plaza and through the gate to Purple. They’ll establish themselves there, then get into the Trading Houses that deal with Earth."

  Urfa raised skeptical eyebrows. "So, how do we pull that off, under Disco’s nose?"

  Ajki grinned. "The most important thing is to distract Xen Wolfson. We have some science types who will talk to Q about something. We should only need a few minute’s window, but if we start operation Distract Xen a bit earlier, everyone will be looking at them, not the invisible people sneaking around the back roads."

  "Them?"

  "Yes. That's why I'm here. I would like to use Rael Withione. The, umm, less peaceful her reunion with Endi Dewulfe, the better."

  Urfa started grinning. "I suspect she'll like to be ordered to slap him in public. She can probably distract every guard around the plaza. So, let’s set up a time table, and get things rolling."

  ***

  Rael's apartment in Gate City was bare and utilitarian. One bed, one couch, one stool at the counter and the minimum cooking gear.

  Because I'm pretending this is temporary. That I'll be moving back to Paris next week. To a barracks room even smaller than this.

  I have no roots, no family. And in a couple of months I'll find out if Endi ever cared about me. If he will be repulsed by the scars. She blinked back tears.

  And if he does care, I'll use it.

  Then he'll ditch me as untrustworthy.

  Rael straightened, and refrained from slapping herself. "This is war, not love. I'm going to go out for dinner, then buy a colorful rug for the floor. Maybe even a picture to put up on the wall."

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Summer Solstice 1399

  Seaside

  Jade ground her teeth and followed Teri's lead as the Pyramid of Seaside sang the Moon down into the sea. The ridge behind their mansion rose to a slight peak here, twenty miles north of the gates. A solid hard day's walk. Not the grueling two week hike she'd grown up with.

  She might be calling herself a Full Moons by virtue of her daughter grasping power, but Jade had spent too much time with the Mount Frost Pyramid as a child to not realize that she wasn't learning new techniques, or even new ways to use what she did know.

  Teri knew a hodgepodge of advanced techniques, but she was a lousy teacher, hoarding her knowledge. And when she did teach, she had no foundations as to how the spells were developed.

  They needed a Dark Crescent.

  Cost and Zenith—along with Tromp—had been the trouble makers from that generation, but they hadn't been known for their studiousness. So Teri's mother was not a good choice. Swish . . . possibly, but she was a born whiner, not a leader. Rumor had it that she'd birded Xen, and that meant she knew Traveling, at least on an instinctive level. So she would be useful in one way.

  But it was Ultra that Jade set her hopes on. Her own mother, who'd covered for her Black Widow daughter, who'd tried to raise Jade right. If she was approached correctly, could she be tempted to try and save a whole pyramid? To lead a whole pyramid?

  There was only one way to find out.

  At dawn, they walked down from the apex of the ridge to the camping spot they'd set up and slept, and walked the rest of the way in the afternoon. Becca, Miss Herrietta and Nanny Mason had the traditional welcome back feast ready, and the men all thought that meant there was going to be an orgy. She and Smokey kept the younger girls corralled and protected.

  How much time have they spent in the fast room? I should do that myself, get this pregnancy over and done with. Of course, I have to experience the whole nine months.

  Dammit. Rior's right. It was stupid to have an orgy, even if a few of us did need the wine.

  We need training! I'm going to be a Waning Half Moon soon enough! I'm a Black Widow. Why am I acting like a dammed girl. A stupid damned girl.

  But she watched the wizar
ds closely, and blocked or absorbed the splash from their attempts to copy the orgasm spell. By the time they herded the youngsters off to bed she was hot enough to bed Mag—but then she'd kill him for sure. She contemplated the pleasurable possibilities, and must have leaked a bit, because he shrank back and slunk away.

  The party broke up early, the men surly and frustrated, the witches laughing and smug. It was the first time Epee and Gauntlet seemed to realized the power they had over the men. Falchion was shooting nasty looks her way, not yet realizing the pleasure of controlling men.

  She couldn't sleep, she was too wound up by all the spells she'd intercepted. She wrapped a robe around herself walked out to the pool. Not to her surprise, Smokey, Sunset and Teri were swimming.

  "C'mon in. The temperature is perfect." Smokey swam to the side. "We need to be like that more often. Make sure the men know they have no rights. We may have to kill one, to make a point."

  Jade nodded, dropped the robe and dived in. It was just cool enough to be refreshing. She swam back to Smokey. "I've been wondering how we could pick up some advanced training. My mother was a Waning Half of Mount Frost, last I checked. She may well be a Dark Crescent by now. I might be able to get her to help us. We'll have to look all repentant, and blame it all on Ricardo."

  Narrowed eyes from Teri, but then she looked away.

  Ha! Like Hell she's over that man.

  Smokey frowned. "It's a risk, but we've got a problem, here and now, with these men. We really do need more training."

  "We should be learning the applications of Wind and Water, as Full Moons, and Teri, you should be learning about Fire and Light right now." Jade slicked back her hair. "I'll go talk to mother tomorrow."

  Smokey nodded. "We can already do so many of the advanced applications, Building and corridors and even gates. Maybe the academics will make it easier. I'll see about sending the men off on a several day hunting trip."

  Jade slipped out quietly the next morning. Which was midnight, on the other side. She walked from the gate to Grantown, and then corridored to Ash. She wrapped herself up enough to be virtually invisible, then reached through her shields to listen passively to the village.

  Ten people in Answer's house. Two old women, sound asleep, three tired mothers, likewise. Two children, a couple of teenagers. Ultra was awake, and Jade slipped around to tap on the back door before letting herself into the familiar house.

  Her mother looked exhausted. Too tired to do anything but blink at her.

  Jade made her sit down, and finished feeding the fire in the stove and kneading the dough for the morning's baking. Then they talked quietly over tea.

  "So, Crimson, Walnut and Macaw don't even spell you for these chores? Do they let you sleep during the day?"

  "Oh, they all moved out; they started a trading business. I don't hardly ever see them. Leopardite helps Periwinkle with little Cougar, and rides herd over both the teenagers, since Wollastinite has a small child of her own, Mink, you know? I don't have anyone to take care of, so I take care of . . . whatever."

  Strangers. They are all strangers to me, now. "Mother, my friends and I aren't very nice people, but at least we have hired staff to do this sort of thing. Why don't you come visit, you could rest up, get pampered a bit and visit the rest of your family. Betelgeuse is a sweet teenager, and she needs proper training, not the hodgepodge I remember."

  Ultra sagged, looking around the kitchen. "I can't possibly leave."

  "Of course you can. Just write a note saying how tired you are, and that you are going away to recuperate, meditate and practice. It's even true."

  Ultra allowed herself to be persuaded, and they walked through the corridor as the rest of the village was just starting to awaken for the day. The rest of the rogue witches were deferential, or at any rate doing a good job of acting that way. Ultra slept in until late afternoon, and then Jade took her for a short hike to the crest of the south ridge.

  The view was spectacular. As the sun set, Ultra sat and meditated, and ran through some spell warmups that Jade had never seen.

  "Humph. And you a Full Moon!" Her mother showed her the warm-ups, the basic spells, for the Full Moon, and apparently found them relaxing herself.

  The witches must have bubbled three quarters of the kids. Dinner was a pleasant and relaxed time, with all the remaining children quiet and deferential. Rior and Fidel were here, and also polite. Rior sent a frown her way, but Fidel was gentlemanly and charming. Ultra flirted a bit but kept it polite and surprisingly intelligent. The teenagers were fascinated by the wit and play, and a pleasant meal was had by all. Even Rior relaxed and enjoyed it.

  The next day, they cut a better path up to the ridge top, and Ultra led them all through exercises suited to their current levels.

  "No wonder you are so dominated by those men. Running off with Ricardo has left you a very poor legacy, I'm afraid. Now, Jade, Sunset, and Smokey, you need to master these exercises for Full Moons."

  "Now, Half Moons. You four need to do the intermediate exercises. And Nimbus, Dusk, and Betelgeuse the beginning exercises."

  Besides lessons, they didn't let her do a bit of work. The men returned, received one look from her and decided they needed more meat, take at least a week . . .

  Rior initiated a few conversations about genetic transformations, and morphological changes. They all listened with interest as Ultra explained the relationship of the two, and how either or both could be used. Rior brought out one of the hex bottles, very much to her horror.

  "My dear fellow! What a hideous mishmash. What were you trying to do?"

  "I'm glad to be able to claim innocence. I think this may have been the garbage dump of a fairly skilled magician. It's being bottled as a hex, by people who didn't have any magical abilities until they took some of this themselves. I have no idea how they came to possess it."

  Teri's fingernails tapped on the table, but she said nothing.

  "Garbage dump. Yes. I think you are right. Well it's easy enough to see which of these changed the body—all these hair colors, skin pigmentation, even one for stimulating bone growth. None of that will be passed on to the next generation. On the other hand, these spells for inserting the power genes, if a large enough dose is taken for all the cells to be affected, or if by random chance the cells in the reproductive organs that divide to produce the sperm or the immature ova are changed, then the attribute will be inherited. Goodness, this one is rejuvenation, this one rapid aging. Weight gain and weight loss. Hmph. Let's dissect a few of these, and I'll show you how they work . . ."

  Two weeks later, when she decided to leave, they all escorted her to the gate, and Jade and Betelgeuse rode with her to Grantown and the corridor to Karista. "Now, don't you let everyone dump the work on you."

  Betelgeuse blinked away actual tears as her grandmother rode through the arch.

  Jade straightened her back. She, and all the witches, needed to learn that dignity, control and power. Even dead tired, Ultra hadn't allowed either the men or the younger witches to dominate her. Somehow, under all the responsibilities, the load she has to carry, she's found something . . . I don't even have a word for. I can only threaten, and coerce. Throw spells of mental control. How can dignity and good manners achieve more?

  Chapter Thirty-five

  04 July, 2234

  Earth Bogota Nuke

  "What do you mean we can't arrest him!" Hanger shook the newspaper under the Chief's nose.

  "The Feds want to follow him home, find out where he's from."

  Hanger sighed. "Right. I understand that, but I really, really want this Harold Bender afterwards. We've got him cold for two rapes and felony theft."

  The Chief nodded. "As it happens, the Feds called about two seconds after you'd hung up. Right. Tapped. I wouldn't bet they aren't listening now. They told me they were tracking one other man and three of the women that exited with the men. We'll be meeting with them in two hours."

  The Fed in charge was an interesting fellow.
Jack Danzinger. "I went to several of the suspect's readings. I swear they didn't write those books themselves. Their research is too thin for the depth of understanding in the books. I think they're hawking best sellers from other universes. And no doubt selling stolen merchandise in other Universes, which would explain why not a single piece of jewelry was ever recovered from the raid."

  He cued his comp and a map replaced the five faces on the wall. "This covers a two county area in upstate New York. The red star is the house that tunnel connected to, the blue stars are where we've lost our suspects." He nodded politely toward Hanger. "Using Captain Hanger's methods we located two tunnels. They both came out inside the same State park, just a few hundred feet apart." He cued the comp and got a montage of pictures around a detailed map. "It's a bland, ordinary spot that has no views, no hiking trails or picnic spots. We've spotted cameras around, and have hopes of catching one of the two that are still out making the book signing rounds.

  "We've brought you and your people in, Chief, because we don't want to enlarge the pool of potential leaks, but we need a bit more manpower."

  Masters and Lancing swapped looks, and Hanger caught the Fed's eye. "Will we be on site, at this park?"

  "No. They seem to be very good at spotting people. All of our breaks have been through electronic surveillance, so we'll be two miles away, and follow on quickly. Two of the women are scheduled to arrive in New York tomorrow, with limo service to this hotel." He backed up to the county map and tapped a blue star. "We'll be watching them along the route, and hopefully have not misjudged what they will be doing.

  "Now, if they are going to another World, as I've hypothesized because of these books, things could be odd. I recommend you pack a wide variety of clothing, as we know nothing about climate or culture on the far side. They may simply have another tunnel to another part of our World. We won't know until we get there. If you're game, be here at eight am tomorrow."