Earth Gate (Wine of the Gods Book 17)

by Pam Uphoff

  Rustle snickered. "Yes it was quite funny watching the powerless men parading about, wondering why these beautiful women didn't find them interesting. If the men didn't slope off pretty quick the older witches would send them off. And the trip my father came along on, when my little sister Topaz was fifteen . . . well, he only injured a couple of them. But we sort of stopped letting the young witches go to Wallenton for a couple of years. Not worth the aggravation. It's an awkward time for witches. Once you grasp power consciously, you can learn to tuck it all in and 'magically hide' and the problem goes away. It's easy to hide from non-magicians. The more magical a person is the harder it is to hide from them. Xen's a good one to practice that on. If he can't see you, no one can."

  Deena thought that through. "The passes stopped about the time I enlisted. I thought it was being in the Army, instead of a girl on the street that made the difference."

  "It's part of maturing. You gained control of power at the same time you matured enough to grab control of your life. You just didn't consciously realize that you were also taking control of your magic, and hiding your glow. The more Fuchsia succeeds at controlling Centauri, the more likely the girl won't be capable of grasping power, whatever her genetics."

  "Huh. I hadn't thought of it like that." Deena juggled Kinkajou, who was quite definitely getting heavy, and now wiggly. Deena put her down and she promptly crawled in pursuit of Mars. Good. Wear her out.

  "So, is there any way to get regular witch lessons without getting into battles with Answer on a regular basis?"

  The other three women snickered.

  The one she hadn't met nodded. "If you find out, let me know. I'm River, and you're the Deena who's in the Army and went off spying with Xen?"

  "Yes . . . Oh, you're the witch from Art's museum."

  "Yes, and the hardest part of . . . adjusting to the new world has been finding a pyramid I fit into. I knocked heads with Answer, then tried Karista Bay, since Simon is teaching at King's University . . . High society and witches don't match well, and I know a ton more than Trump, and the lessons all dissolved into girl talk or cat fights. Frequently both."

  Rustle shrugged. "And she ran screaming from Rip Crossing."

  "Not the Pyramid, just, just . . . "

  Q cleared her throat. "I know Simon doesn't like corridors, but the Crossroads would be an excellent place to start your own pyramid."

  River sat up and stared. "I can't just start . . . I mean . . . how many witches live there?"

  "Me and Nighthawk. Yellow's talking about moving there, if she can get permission to live that far away from Karista. Deena could come regularly, so you three would be a Half Moon Triad. I don't think Fuchsia would be interested in a tiny pyramid, but we could rope in any teenagers who came to work at Harry's." She shrugged. "If you were there, I'll bet Grace would move, then we'll have a Crescent Moon triad. We'd be small, but that's better than the constant sniping that goes on here. See? Even Obsidian is looking interested."

  River looked boggled. "I'm not used to a world with a single big pyramid and a couple of offshoots. Most cities had a pyramid, or two, and budded off a new one at need. But a single witch couldn't just walk away and start a new one."

  "Yeah, that's what Answer said when Rustle started holding meetings in Rip Crossing." Obsidian smirked a bit. "After the Comet, we all got together and split up four ways, officially. One Pyramid failed, and everyone came crawling back."

  "Hmm." River shifted her daughter and settled back. "I'll think about that."

  The little red dragon flapped down from the sky and begged for food, then got into a game of chase with her adopted siblings, with Kinkajou trailing and being treated more like an obstacle than a participant. And sometimes a rider.

  "Relax, Deena, she can't fly with any weight at all."

  "Oh. Good."

  Rustle chuckled. "No, the good part is that she's being raised human long enough to pick up a large dose of socialization. I remember the dragons that attended school here. Primo was one of them. The girls were all socially precocious, the boys lagged. So the boys absorbed the human cultures to a larger extent, and the girls stayed draconic. Their World must be an interesting one. In many ways they are barbarians. They hunt and raise children and very little else. They don't build anything but the most rudimentary shelters, they have no cities. Which is rather odd, since their mother, or grandmother of the majority, now, was our mayor and did all the bookkeeping and taxes for all the businesses here."

  "I wonder how long it will be before they start building?"

  Wavelength galloped over and climbed into Obsidian's lap. "Where's Rufi?"

  "He went off with Wolf." Rustle explained. "I think they're looking at horses."

  The red dragon sat up and fell off Obsidian's lap. "Our horses had babies! Four fillies and two colts. When I grow up, I'm going to have lots of horses!"

  Rustle grinned. "I thought you were going to be a Great Explorer? Like Uncle Lefty and Aunt Question?"

  "I can be as many things as I want to be."

  "Yes. But sometimes you have to concentrate on a single one for awhile."

  The dragon snorted derisively. Kinkajou crawled back to the adults. Rustle leaned over and picked up Kinkajou. "She's growing fast. You haven't had to use bubbles much since you got back?"

  "More than I'd like. My little brothers are at a rather . . . teenage stage, so I'm trying to not impose on my stepmother." Deena sighed. "Poor Dad. He and my stepmum aren't getting on well. Families are such strange beasts." She shrugged that away, and eyed River. "You're a Half Moon?"

  "Yes. I miscarried late enough for the bodily awareness effect . . . well, I'll be honest. I managed to partially block a death spell from Mercy. The baby was killed, I miscarried, and if I hadn't gotten into Lady Gisele's hands a few days later, I might have died as well." She shrugged. By the tenseness and faint downturn at the corners of her mouth, she was much less accepting than she pretended. "So I didn't have a daughter to further my advancement until Lynx arrived. If I were to start a pyramid, Yellow will pass me up if Jaguar grasps power before Lynx."

  Deena stifled a giggle. "Yellow as the senior sister? Oh . . . my."

  Q grinned. "She's been bubbling Jag fairly often. I think you've got a good chance of winning the race. And anyway, there's so much variance, it could be Kinkajou advancing first."

  River smirked. "No. You'll wait another ten years to have a baby and the baby will still grasp power before all the rest. I've heard all about you and Xen." She looked ruefully down at the slumbering child. "And now I have to wonder about what will become of my own little half witch half wizard."

  "Send her to the wizards school. Nil will teach her how to use that power gene specifically." Rustle shrugged. "Most of us still source like witches, but the extra source is handy sometimes."

  Chapter Seventeen

  Late Spring 1395

  Wizards School, Prairie Coast

  Kenton held power in his hands. For a moment. Then it faded away. Maybe I'm too old to learn magic. He turned to watch the others.

  John collected sunlight, compressed it and threw the fireball at the ocean. It stuck to his hand.

  "Roll it out to your fingertips, separate it from yourself." Dydit was coaching them today.

  John made a scraping motion with his thumb, like rolling up half dried paint . . . This time it threw properly. It hissed when it hit the waves. "Why doesn't it burn me?"

  "Because while you are holding it, it's just power. Potential. Away from you, it's heat. You can, if you think about it, put your hand in fire and absorb the power without getting burned."

  Basil looked over from where he was failing to strangle sunlight. "You are kidding, right? And how come it doesn't work for me?"

  "Because you're trying to capture the light instead of the heat." Dydit stepped over to him. "Pull the heat out of the air, out of the sun."

  Basil's hands glowed faintly, faded again. "I just can't quite . . . "

  "
Yeah. I dunno how Oners train. Maybe what we need is some mage exercises. They use lower frequencies, more heat more than light."

  Kenton frowned. "But you said I had the mage gene too."

  Dydit snorted. "Actually Nil says your father is Oscar Harryson. And he claimed to get power from the sea. So take a swim and see if you can get any power out there."

  Kenton gave him a dubious look, but since, for practical reasons they were all stripped down to cut off pants anyway . . . he waded out. It felt great after the sweat and sand of the beach. He got lifted off his feet by the close in surf. Fought out past it and swam for the bigger breakers on the sand bars offshore. He found his footing on the sand bar and laughed as the next wave knocked him back off it. He regained the sand bar and lifted his hands. The next wave split around him . . . What?

  He gestured with his hands and the waves started splashing high and over his head, opening holes and falling all around but not on him. The waves stood up and danced for him. He danced and laughed and the kids swam out and grabbed him and drug him back to shore, suffering from some sort of drunken euphoria.

  "Guess we oughto've sent you out to swim earlier." Nil eyed him.

  He clutched his head, with the euphoria draining away, a headache was starting up that felt like someone had pounded him with a mallet.

  Dydit snorted. "No telling what might have happened, on Comet Fall. I suspect it would have involved a lot of mermaids, though. Some mages attract them like flies to carrion."

  "Mermaids?" Kenton whimpered. "And why does my head hurt so badly?"

  "Because you overworked the parts that do magic. And used a pot load of energy. Basil, Lenny and Mike? Haul him back to the kitchen and feed him. A couple of beers will work wonders. For you four, I think we need to find someone with specific mage training."

  Kenton eyed him, around odd auras. "Well, until then, would anyone object to my going hunting? I'm tired of mutton."

  Nil scratched his chin. "We imported deer, turned them loose and haven't seen them since. Go back through the gate and either hunt or just buy some beef or chickens."

  "Umm. Barbequed chicken. Big juicy steaks. I'll get both. Once my head stops pulsing. Bacon. I need bacon."

  Two hours later he walked back through the gate.

  HQ picked up his signal. Five hours later he was back in Fascia.

  ***

  Jaime kept quiet, holding up a piece of wall in the small conference room. And absorbed Kenton's report. Damn, I wish I had gone.

  "Magic force fields, check. Fireballs, check. Gates? The actual school is through this gate. It's permanent, no obvious source of power. How it was made? Nada, zip, zilch, zero." Kenton shook his head. "I . . . have hesitated to push, to ask about it."

  "Damn." General Soeder drummed his fingers. "Well, get back there and push as much as you need to. Orobona? Looks like your infiltration is on as well." They stood and saluted as he left, then they all sank down into the chairs.

  Kenton eyed the others. "Rip Crossing?"

  "Yes. I've scoured the rumor mill. Everyone says this Rip Crossing is a den of depravity. Sex, magic, hotsprings, and more sex." Devvy Tripp smirked. "On the theory that rumors are at least two orders of magnitude worse than the actual, I suspect it's a country inn with hotsprings."

  Captain Furnace grinned. "Sounds like they got it mixed up with the Cadent Orgies, of which I also don't believe a word."

  Jaime and Kenton swapped glances and kept their mouths shut.

  Captain Orobona hemmed a bit. "The people at the Veronian embassy seem quite . . . reliably certain about that one night of the year being . . . wild. However, this Rip Crossing, according to the latest satellite photos is a small village with a large inn and three large barns. So the wildness will have limits. You'll have to be careful. But jump in and chat up a mage or witch, if you see an opportunity. And if they're drunk and indiscreet, all the better. Then we'll see about crossing the mountains to get to Crossroads. As far as I can see, there are only two ways to get a wheeled vehicle across the Rip. The first is down here at the Old South Road, and both Verona and the Kingdom have guards there. It might be possible to get across at the Old North Road. But if we can't sneak the transports across, we'd face close to two months crossing the desert in a carriage. Which just isn't doable, with the supplies we can take. So our plans are fluid, at this point. We may have to shut down, and try again from Karista."

  Kenton fidgeted. "We might be able to get there from the Wizard School. But I don't know if we could get away with equipment of any significant size. In fact, how are you going to get through Verona to the wastelands?"

  "We've done some scouting, off and on over the years. And now, with ACV's, we can hustle across farmland, and if the Kara Sea and the Gulf are both calm, we can zip across and avoid everything but a short dash across Verona. We can go around the small towns, and Verona's central northern border is very thinly guarded—nothing there but wastelands. So we just have to get across the southern border and we're golden."

  Jaime grinned. "Finally! Some action."

  Kenton nodded. "From what I've heard of Rip, you should have fun." He glanced at the clock. "I need to do a bit of shopping before I catch my ride back."

  Jaime caught the captain's eye, who nodded toward the door.

  Kenton was waiting in the hall. "So, what's really happening here?"

  "The old hands versus the new. I'm a bit surprised they haven't sent us all back home for re-education. The Captain saw the writing on the wall early enough to shift responsibility for the schools and the water supply system to the civilians. So that's all right. There have been quite a few complaints in the city . . . but they've dried up once they realized the new man in charge didn't give a damn if one of his soldiers rapes a native."

  Kenton snorted. "We all saw that coming."

  "Yeah. I'm hoping the general's reports include things like how difficult it is going to be to conquer this place, so maybe they ought to try trade."

  Kenton grinned at that. "I never realized you were a starry eyed dreamer."

  "Brat. I can't believe you're getting all the magic lessons and I'm not."

  "Ha! You just don't like asking me to teach you all my new tricks. And frankly? John, Rick and Chuck are kicking my butt. There's three kinds of magic, wizard, witch and mage. Apparently I'm a mage, and they're going to find someone that knows how that works. Apparently I can do things with water."

  "Huh." Jaime led the way out the side door, and appropriated a wagon and team. "So no one recognized you?"

  Kenton sighed. "No. They did, however, recognize us as half Earthers immediately. And then they taught us anyway."

  "And they let you out to report?"

  "To shop. I don't think they understand how fast a helicopter is."

  "Ah. So being gone for a day is no big deal. They think. What sort of shopping?"

  "Food. Everyone's tired of mutton. I promised beef, chickens and bacon."

  "How are you doing for fruit and veggies?"

  "You are not my mother. I don't have to eat my veggies." Kenton snickered. "I'll admit that fruit does sound good."

  They chatted while they grabbed more than could be easily toted by a single man, then talked magic while Jaime drove him to the helipad.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Late Spring 1395

  1 June 3512 ce

  Fascia, Auralia, Comet Fall

  "The one thing we always dread, and always smile and take, is the visiting government representative."

  Jaime looked over at Captain Orobona. "So is the councilman here for a show, or to pass on orders direct from the Council?"

  "Orders ought to come down through the military line of command." Orobona hunched his shoulders. "I . . . caught a bit of conversation between the councilman and the fellow in the pretty suit. I . . . think he called the man Ambassador."

  The whole room digested that.

  Hamza drummed his fingers. "Ambassador from Earth to Fascia, to Comet Fall as a who
le . . . or are they going to talk directly to the Kingdom of the West?"

  "As Earth, or as Fascia?" Devvy Tripp drummed fingers. "Any way you look at it, it's going to change our relationship with everyone from the City Fathers to the Kingdom."

  "Or just clarify it." Jaime stared down at the neat, compact little computer in front of him. "Hi, we're here to conquer you. Give us your goodies nicely or we'll take them anyway, breaking lots of stuff and killing people without remorse while we do it."

  "Yeah. Damn it, I wish I hadn't sent you to Karista already. I'd have liked to have sent you along." Orobona sat back. "But then again, I could be completely wrong. Maybe it's just a dog and pony show."

  A private stuck his head through the door, spotted the captain and stepped in. Saluted. "General's compliments, would Captain Orobona and Captain Furnace attend a meeting in the Main Conference room at oh nine thirty."

  "Certainly." Orobona waved a casual salute and dismissal. Waited until the man was gone. "Guess we're about to find out."

  He was back in three hours. "They're going to land a helicopter in front of the King's Palace, in Karista and escort Ambassador Fitzgerald into meet the king with a squad of marines, armed to the teeth."

  ***

  Xen made a fast trip back to Karista to report the immanent arrival of an ambassador from Earth.

  They scrambled up every magically able person for shielding, in case of gunfire. And then started adding to their list of people they wanted present.

  The helicopter landed, spooking the few horses still on the street. Marines in their splotchy tans and browns leaped out and formed a perimeter.

  Under orders, the guards remained at their posts. Xen and Easterly, in dress uniform escorted Colonel Janic out the main doors. Janic paced down the steps and stood waiting. Xen, up two steps, kept a physical shield low around the Colonel, ready to snap it up higher at the first sign of active belligerence.