Earth Gate (Wine of the Gods Book 17)

by Pam Uphoff

  "Where did you get those?"

  "From Inky, she buys stuff from a hairdresser in Karista who's from Rip."

  "Rip. Old Gods, would you trust something from those perverts?"

  Macaw blinked, as if it had never occurred to her to doubt some unknown witch's work. Then her smile returned. "Well, let's test them. Hmm, what do you think? Red hair with purple eyes or black hair with green?"

  They all turned to look at the camp kitchen as pots started clinking down on counters.

  "Yeah. One in the oatmeal, and one in the scrambled eggs." Crimson tried to suppress a snigger.

  "I don't see any scrambled eggs."

  "It's an army, the eggs will be scrambled." Crimson kept a careful watch while Macaw strolled into camp, doped two pans and strolled out. It's getting worse. In another couple of years will we even be able to see ourselves?

  They rode the horses carefully behind the tents and through the corridor to set up their own camp. Crimson circled around a half acre or so, putting up a foggy barrier to fence the horses in and any predators out. Macaw started digging through saddlebags and pulling out a miscellaneous variety of food.

  "I wonder how long those potions take to have an effect?" Walnut walked over to peer through the corridor.

  "Oh, do you think their hair has to grow out that color?" Macaw scowled at the corridor. "And what about their eyes? I'll bet their eyes change really fast." She bounced over, and through the corridor.

  Crimson winced and followed. She stood well back as Macaw circled their flimsy table peering at their hair and eyes. She stopped to add something else to a pot, then headed back to the corridor. Crimson paused long enough to rake her fingers through the grass and make the horses' trips through less obvious.

  " . . . Sort of purplely, but I couldn't see anyone with green eyes. I'll have to check again later."

  "Too bad the hair isn't instantaneous." Crimson shrugged. "It's not going to be very spooky until it's really obvious. I'd rather send them home sooner, with less information on the gate."

  They picnicked, and eyed the occasional big deer and started talking about having venison for dinner.

  As soon as they spread out and started stalking, the deer started fading away into the open forest. They recognize predator behavior, even if they've never seen a human. Crimson turned further into the light breeze, and spotted a young buck. She gave up thoughts of a huge rack in favor of tender and plump and thought unnoticeable thoughts until she was within slicing distance.

  Bloody damn thing must have weighed half a ton. Walnut and Macaw ran off to start a fire, while Crimson butchered meat and stashed it in a bubble. She gave in and also kept the hide and antlers.

  I'll tan it and . . . do something with it.

  Macaw and Walnut had dug a pit and had a hot fire going.

  They were assembling spices on a table that they'd apparently just made. The wood was still damp and smooth as glass from a well controlled slice spell. They looked like they were going to set up housekeeping, long term.

  Crimson opened her mouth to say they needed to go home tomorrow . . . then shut it. Like anyone will notice? She pulled a nice big shoulder roast out of a bubble, and a bottle of ordinary wine from her saddle bags. Well, good wine, but not that wine. She trickled wine over the roast, and Walnut grated pepper on it.

  Periodically they slipped across to see what the Earthers were doing. The fire died down to hot coals and they tossed in rocks to keep the roast out of the ashes, mostly, lowered it in and covered the hole. Half an hour later they were trying to ignore the smell of roasting meat that had started seeping out.

  The Earthers' eyes were tending toward a bit purple and a bit green. Nothing too startling though, and their hair was unchanged. Macaw grumbled and wondered how long before they noticed their own eyes changing color.

  "They're men." Walnut pointed out. "It could be months."

  The venison was delicious.

  They stuffed themselves and were arguing about what to do to the Earthers next when Walnut leaped up and ran for the corridor.

  "What . . .?" Crimson bolted after her.

  On the far side, human babbling at a high volume and the horrible screams of a badly injured horse.

  The soldiers all had their guns out. The horse was thrashing on the ground just outside the gate. Three soldiers were laying scattered around and Fuchsia was curled up, hands over a bloody wound in her chest.

  Crimson threw a stun spell at the soldier furthest to the rear of the action. And another and . . . Macaw and Walnut joined in. Other soldiers spotted what was happening and yelled orders.

  "Shields!" Crimson yelled, throwing up her own. Macaw ran to the side, Walnut crouched down to minimized the size of shield she needed, and kept throwing stuns.

  The soldiers lifted their weapons and sprayed pellets in streams in their general direction. The pellets were unbelievably fast. They knocked her flat, and she curled up behind a shield for a moment, then anchored it and got back into the fight. The Earthers had no resistance to the spells, and the last ones collapsed. Crimson turned and jumped back through the corridor, and grabbed the bottle of the wine of the gods.

  She pulled the cork as she ran back. Walnut and Macaw drew back from Fuchsia and she dribbled some wine into the witch's mouth. Fuchsia jerked and opened her eyes. Grabbed the bottle and chugged a couple of swallows.

  Macaw reached for the bottle. "I'll try to save your horse."

  Fuchsia let go reluctantly.

  "You've got enough. So long as you don't bleed to death before it can . . ." Crimson shut up and closed her eyes. Looked carefully with that sense of body that had come with childbirth. And could reach in mentally and pinch the worst arterial bleeding off and push the torn shreds of the artery together. The wine knitted the damaged edges together, and she carefully released her grip, let the blood flow through . . . it held. She looked for the next worse . . . pinched a rip together for a moment. . . . the rest was done, or at any rate, done well enough for the wine to do it alone. She sat back and blinked a bit. The horse was limp on the ground, breathing, but not feeling Walnut and Macaw pulling on one of its legs. Crimson staggered over and touched the misshapen limb.

  "The bullet pretty much shattered the bone. Keep pulling, I'll try to push the pieces together." First that one, then the big splinter tucked in against it. Then the bottom section, pull it into line . . . all those shards needed to somehow fit into the gap.

  "We have to close the gate." Fuchsia's voice was a bare whisper.

  "They're stunned. We'll worry about the gates after we've saved your horse." Macaw sounded like she was crying.

  Crimson pushed the last piece into alignment, old gods knew if any of the shards were in the right place, but the wine was gluing them together, crudely and lumpily. Crimson held the bone bits until they were all tied in, then pulled her attention out and looked around. "Keep him asleep. Maybe in a couple of hours the bone will be together enough to support his weight."

  Fuchsia wiped tears from her eyes. "Better to have saved your energy."

  Crimson looked around, nodded. "I'll get their gate anchor, first. That will be easy enough."

  She caught a bubble, imagining it huge . . . she made an opening and scooped up the entire gate anchor. Closed the bubble and stuck it to the ground. Only a magician with dimensional talent would be able to see it, release it. Then she walked over to the permanent gate.

  "I heard someone say that you had to crash a fast spinning top into it." She looked over at Fuchsia. "Do you know what they were talking about?"

  "Yeah. That's what they say." Fuchsia staggered up right. "I can't do it alone, right now. So we're going to form a triad, and see what we can do."

  "We're going to wait an hour, and you are going to rest, while we tie up these jerks."

  Fuchsia opened her mouth to argue, then shut it and stepped over to a nice grassy spot before she folded up.

  Between belts and the straps from their guns, they got the
Earthers tied up.

  Then fetched the remains of their dinner. Crimson got the electronic stove working and made venison stew, and when Fuchsia woke, forced her to eat and drink. A few of the Earthers were starting to recover.

  "Keep an eye on them, Macaw. Walnut, Crimson, let's give this a try." Fuchsia staggered over to face the gate.

  They weren't a very practiced triad, but Crimson tried to match the other witch, and sink into the boiling bubbles. :: That string must be the gate. ::

  :: Yes. :: Fuchsia cast their minds further, letting the bubbles flow by . . . :: There. See? That's what we need. ::

  Crimson reached for it . . .

  :: No! Grab a bubble. Nudge it carefully over to the string. ::

  They had to herd it all over before they managed to crash it into the string. The string snapped. Fuchsia released the triad. And staggered weakly.

  Crimson grabbed her arm and steered her through the corridor and hastily opened her bedroll. "Sleep. I'll pop the corridor."

  Fuchsia nodded and collapsed on the blankets.

  Back in the Earther camp, the horse had managed to stand, and was shivering, on three legs. Other bloody spots here and there . . . "How many times did they shoot the poor horse?"

  She boggled over the bloody depression on the horses face, over the left eye.

  "I don't know how that one missed his brain." Macaw patted the horse carefully. "I know their brains are small, but . . . "

  "But this one must be brainless. Let's see if he can hobble through the corridor." Crimson felt a spell and looked over her shoulder.

  "I'm doing sleep now. These stupid men have all had their little brains rattled around enough." Walnut shrugged. "I don't know why we don't just kill them all."

  The horse hobbled, one painful stride at a time, through the corridor. Nearly fell trying to hop through. His head tossed in pain. He weaved, but stayed on his feet.

  "Good boy, Brainless!" Macaw patted him.

  "Never recover enough to ride." Crimson winked at Macaw. "I think that leg bone will always be weak."

  A faint moan from Fuchsia. "Damn it, he was fast, too. Now what do I do with him?"

  "Oh relax, we'll just leave him at the Crossroads, good grazing, and you know all the horses there get sheltered during storms."

  "Yeah. Retired. Good." Fuchsia relaxed.

  They swept the Earther camp for their own stuff, untied a single sleeper, and left. Crimson popped the corridor bubble.

  "There. A couple of hundred miles between us. Sheesh! I'm pooped." Crimson glanced at Fuchsia and sacked out on the grass. Might as well sleep. The next few days will be interesting.

  ***

  Lefty eyed the three witch sisters, and wondered how the hell to recruit them.

  Colonel Janic didn't look happy, and Wacolm was downright gloomy. Rufi was listening quietly.

  "So the Earthers are exploring, and found one of our gates. So all our people on the One world are stranded." Yes, Wacolm was definitely gloomy.

  Fuchsia shook her head. "Once I recovered, we retreated through the next gate and collapsed it as well, so the Earthers have no way off. Then we opened a new gate to another of the waypoint worlds. So the maze route is actually a bit shorter than previous, but still has plenty of cutoffs."

  Lefty eyed the youngsters. "So you three were just out exploring?"

  Crimson snorted. "However tempting it was to stay home and let Answer find chores for us to do, yes, we decided to have a picnic and then go hunting. We spotted the Earthers, and retreated to try and figure out what to do about them. Probably we would have just come here and told someone, but we saw Fuchsia . . . well, Walnut saw Fuchsia."

  Walnut nodded. "She trotted out of the gate, her horse tripped over some of the instruments the Earthers had sitting there. Then she started throwing spells and the Earthers started shooting those pellet guns. We all ran through and started stunning the Earthers."

  "We had light warps on, so they couldn't see us." Macaw grinned. "So we got them all. And healed Fuchsia . . . and sort of healed her horse."

  Crimson nodded. "I bubbled their gate anchor, and when Fuchsia'd recovered enough, we closed our gate."

  Lefty rubbed his temples. "Can all three of you do bubbles and gates?"

  Crimson sat up as if astonished. "I think we just lent strength to Fuchsia. She did the gates. And . . . I can do bubbles, the others can't. Maybe . . . maybe when we're older?"

  Janic sighed, and eyed Crimson. "We really ought to have recruited you."

  Crimson glared. "Instead of reaming me for doing as you ordered? I told Wacolm that Inre was a strong magician and a trained agent."

  Wacolm nodded. "And you were what, twenty-one with no military training at all. Let alone the experience needed to flirt and get information. Are you interested in . . . " He broke off at her emphatically shaken head.

  Rufi shifted then, and finally spoke. "Please don't do any more exploring. We'll check all the gates, and deal with any Earthers we find around them."

  "We were hunting. You should have seen the size of the deer I got! And now those Earthers have that world."

  Wacolm shook his head. "Poor things. Twenty-eight men stuck on a planet without a single woman."

  Lefty escorted them out, eyeing the witches. "What's so funny?"

  Crimson shrugged. "While we were cooking dinner, we thought maybe we could try some potions on the Earthers. They're going to be kind of funny colored."

  Macaw stiffled her giggles. "And one of the potions I used was a male-to-female sex change spell."

  "Old Gods! I should turn you lot loose on the Earthers down in Fascia!" I just hope to hell that Fuchsia hasn't just taught you three how to make gates! Lefty shrugged that particular worry away. Fuchsia was going to be out for awhile. At least she wasn’t showing any signs of wanting to sleep for a year. And probably the Oner listening posts and way station for students could carry on without her for a short while . . .

  Damn it. He needed to find someone to take over carrying messages and equipment to and from the One World. Jeff and Dominic's mental shields were a bit leaky, but he dare not have Xen out of touch. It was going to have to be Yellow. I'll send Jeff and Dominic with her in case there's a problem. They can't cross the last gate . . . but at least Yellow won't find herself alone facing a couple dozen men armed with advanced weapons. Except on One World.

  Old Gods! Please let Fuchsia heal quickly. And the Earthers here stay quiet for awhile longer!

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Late Fall 1395

  King's Own Headquarters, Kingdom of the West

  "They brought a large load into the helicopter hanger, covered, and they're being very careful about door security. But I've started seeing some new faces. I think they have a new gate anchor and are trying to keep it secure."

  Xen sat halfway back at the table as Jek Questionson reported.

  "They've been very reticent in their speaking, I think they know they've got listeners."

  Rufi and Janic exchanged glances, nods.

  "Right, I'll shift everyone that direction, cover them full time."

  "General Soeder will be getting new orders." Rufi looked down the table at them. "We need to know what they're going to try this time, hopefully before they even start. Any suggestions?"

  Easterly cleared his throat. "We need to get into the hanger to confirm the gate anchor."

  "Look for new equipment." Deena put in.

  "Identify its purpose and where they put it, so we can destroy it at need." Xen grinned. "We could make it all disappear."

  Rufi grinned. "In those bubbles? Including the people? But what would be better? Bronze them, or disappear them completely?"

  ***

  The anchor was in the far back corner of the dim hanger. Three of the tall, broad, excavators parked in front of it, concealing it.

  But quick and easy to move, to clear a path to the outer doors, or just make room inside for a dozen gyps or a couple of small tanks to come thr
ough. Xen prowled the hanger, but everything looked familiar. And mobile. He stepped back through the short corridor—two foot long, to be sure of clearing the wall—and looked around the well lit base. Time to search, to look for anything new.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  1 December 3512 ce

  Late Fall 1395 px

  Fascia, Auralia, Comet Fall

  Jaime waited patiently, or perhaps fatalistically, for General Soeder to finish reading the eyes only part of his new orders. Captain Orobona, and the other officers kept silence, it wasn't a formal meeting, just . . . a mob following the messenger with the orders. Soeder had just shrugged and waved them into the conference room.

  The General was nodding to himself. "Well, it was inevitable. Regrettable, really." He stared at the screen for a few seconds more then pushed a series of buttons. When he put the display down it was blank, with the seething bubbles of internal dissolution crawling across it.

  "We are being recalled. The gate will open at Noon, eight days from today, and I want everyone through within two hours. This world will be embargoed."

  The chief surgeon was looking upset and the General nodded to him. "I told them that we'd need ambulances, and in any case we'll be switching traffic back and forth to ensure a debacle like the last one doesn't happen again. We'll get all your patients moved."

  Orobona shifted. "The people who infiltrated the Wizard's School?"

  The General's eyes narrowed. "None of them are actually Earthers, correct?"

  "Yes, sir. All the half native children . . . "

  "Will not be coming with us. I doubt a report at this point would be of interest. We'll leave them there. Their fathers can apply for residency status. And those native wives." His lips thinned in dislike. "I doubt we'll be ignoring this place altogether."

  "Will we be manning any sort of base, here?"