Earth Gate (Wine of the Gods Book 17)

by Pam Uphoff

  She made a rude gesture. "I'm going to climb the hill and see if I can tell how extensive the damage is."

  The result of pulling kinetic energy out of the rotating rings of the gate generator was absolutely spectacular.

  Xen and Q sat out in the desert and watched, the skyline buildings of Nowhereistan occasionally obscured by the smoke billowing up from a dozen blazes.

  "Who would have thought it would explode so spectacularly?" Quicksilver watched a new plume of smoke rising as the rumble of another explosion rolled over the desert.

  "And the shrapnel go so far and find so many flammable targets?" Xen shook his head. "I mean, supercooled and all, you'd think . . . But this ought to keep them grounded for a few years. Maybe they'll learn a bit of humility out of it." He stood up and dusted salty sand off his pants. "Let's get home. Should be peaceful and quiet for awhile."

  "I hope. Surely there is some good use for cross dimensional contact."

  He sat down and cursed his way through lengthening his legs and letting his poor ears get back to normal. Farewell Xeno Time. With luck I won't ever have to do this again.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  10 December 3512 ce

  Late Fall 1395 px

  Fascia, Auralia, Comet Fall

  Jaime climbed to the roof of the palace and stood and watched for hours while buildings and then long swaths of the ground disappeared, leaving a long furrow behind, small figures walking like they were dragging something along behind them.

  "What are they doing?" Furnace leaned on the parapet and studied the disappearing camp.

  "I suspect they have a gate, and are dragging the mouth of it around, so everything, from roof to foundations are being sent, who knows where." Orobona walked over to join them. Did we ever kill a single one of them in combat? Just how obliviously stupid are we?

  "Earth?" Tripp stopped hovering worriedly over the Captain long enough to look even more worried..

  Jaime shook his head. "Much though I hate to say it, they appear to have a better sense of morality than our government. I don't think they would deliberately kill that many people."

  Xen popped into existence beside them. "Well, that only holds if their little present had an off switch. I just dumped it in the General Assembly room. Excellent timing too, they were in session."

  Orobona stared. "The whole truck? In the Assembly room? The whole truck?" He started to laugh, stopped abruptly with a hand to his chest.

  "We hit the whole thing with death spells before delivery, so even if they can't turn it off, it ought not be dangerous. Now, while we're cleaning up the mess, let's talk about you lot." Wolfson leaned back against the rail. "While you were Amma here, the region has prospered, and you were quite remarkably peaceful."

  Another man, or was that another god, stepped out of nowhere and nodded as if he'd been listening. "Your United Earth Council simply would not listen to any form of reason. We aren't going to blame you for that. And we have no objection to your return to the role of Amma."

  The Gate Man. The God of War.

  "I have consulted with King Leano. He says that if the locals reject you, now that they know who and what you are, you are welcome to shift to the Kingdom. Or we can move you to Asia, where you can be independent of everyone."

  Wolfson shrugged. "Talk to your people. We'll leave someone here, in case you need to communicate with us, and the rest of us will be back tomorrow."

  They disappeared.

  ***

  Orobona took a deep breath. He felt great. And Devvy Tripp looked better than ever. He was trying to control an impulse to pinch her very nice posterior, and simultaneously say something . . . friendly. Civilianish.

  Paul walked up carrying a chair. "Sit. Don't scare us like that again."

  Orobona sat, and returned to the view. The site of the camp was completely empty, looking out he could see a few of the other installations, disappearing one by one.

  He turned back to his people. "All right. We need to search the Palace, top to bottom, for anything unpleasant that might have been left behind." He split them and assigned them areas, gathered stern looks when he tried to join in himself.

  ***

  Everything suspicious was flagged and reported, and when a whiff of displaced air announced the arrival of two wizards, Jaime hustled out with the list.

  The brown haired wizard looked quite a bit like Xen Wolfson. Well, a shorter, broader, older version. The second wizard was taller, lanky but well-muscled. There was a predatory gleam in his eye that made Jaime wish he'd strapped on his pistol. Or maybe wooden stakes, for this one.

  The man chuckled evilly, as if reading his mind. "I'm Master Nil. This is Master Dydit. We're both very powerful wizards, and we'd just as soon fry you as not. I'm sure Xen would start speaking to us again in a decade or so."

  Jaime believed him. "I'll try to not give you any . . . excuses to fry us. In the mean time, a search of the premises has turned up several odd items."

  "Good. Show them to us."

  The pair of them disappeared every odd mechanism they'd found, ending on the roof with the captain.

  Master Dydit looked out over the City of Fascia, then turned to Orobona. "Do you think that removing the entire Palace complex would be a good idea?"

  Orobona nodded reluctantly. "If they were prepared to kill everyone in the world, a few small nukes to clean up the evidence seems like a sensible precaution."

  "Indeed." His voice sounded quite dry. "I'm pleased to have met you, Captain. You few who stayed are walking proof that all Earthers are not sociopathic mass murderers." The wizard snorted. "In fact, you may well be the sole reason we didn't return the truck to Earth in an obscure location."

  Orobona wheezed a bit at that.

  "Oh, sorry, almost forgot." The wizard produced a bottle. "One spoonful in the morning, one in the evening for five days. If you'll refill it with red wine, it will spread and remain just as potent, for other people with any heart, stroke or arterial problems."

  Master Nil joined them.

  Jaime eyed him. "Some of our youngsters are at your Wizards school . . . "

  Dydit nodded. "We will ask your young wizards where their loyalty lies. You could use some training yourself."

  Orobona tipped his head back. "I always did wonder if you were a spy from here, or a Oner who'd managed to infiltrate."

  Jaime let out an indignant yelp. "Oner!"

  "Well, the magic. Although you didn't seem to be very good at it."

  "I'm . . . I was born on Earth. My parents worked at the Purple Embassy. They've got genetic engineering too. And magic, but not nearly the sort of thing I've seen here. The UECIA recruited me, to come here and see if I could do something with these guys."

  "CIA!" Devvy crossed her arms and glared. "You should have said something!"

  "Yeah, so we could beat you up." Hamza shook his head. "You, of all people, a weasel from the government."

  "And why don't you have purple hair, anyway?"

  Jaime felt himself relaxing. They didn't recoil in horror. Call me a native.

  "I don't have the purple genes. Not very many people do, but they somehow came out on top. Most of us are just normal colored, and a few of us have the magic genes."

  A little old woman stepped around the wizards. "Let me see." She reached out and touched Jaime's face. He jumped away at the zing of magic.

  She cackled. "You need training." She rubbed her fingers together. "Yes, you have the insertion packets, and both wizard and mage power genes. And you've got one peacock gene, but none of the enabler genes. Half of us gods are like that. The first round of experimenting with odd colors was unsuccessful." She frowned for a moment. "Well, we'll analyze that later. It looks like this 'Purple' is one of the Exile Worlds." She disappeared.

  Jaime jumped. "Who was that!"

  "The Goddess of Health and Fertility."

  "I see." Jaime scrambled to change the subject. "You know, all the little wizards we've talked to seem to
think the Karista Wizards are just fakes, kissing up to the King and his nobles."

  Dydit snickered.

  A man in Western civilian garb trotted up the stairs. "We've scanned the palace. It's safe. The Auld Wulf said to leave it." He turned and caught Tripp's eye. Blond, pretty. Tripp's mouth was sagging and he winked at her.

  Click. The Inn clerk in Rip Crossing.

  "Oh hell." Jaime muttered. "We were busted."

  "Used." Tripp muttered. "Don't tell Goodwin and Mackay if possible."

  "What? Dominic's little buddy, I can see, but the Hot Chick? She actually drove Xen to drinking three more glasses of wine. Absolutely unheard of." His innocent blue eyes twinkled. "Oh you didn't recognize Xen with black hair and facial mods?"

  Tripp was beet red. "First I kill him, then I crawl into a hole and die of sheer embarrassment."

  "Don't bother. He's the God of Spies. He's the best, and the collective subconscious believes in him, and molds him to their beliefs. The whole archetype, you see? He hobnobs with the top crust, turns around and pals with the lowest of the low. He can out-fight, out-talk and out-magic anyone. He always wins. Always saves the day. Always gets the girl, and never finds True Love."

  Orion snickered. "But of course, it couldn't possibly have really been Xen. I mean, Xen? Cavort with the spies of invaders and feed them false information? I think his boss is pissed because he didn't kill the lot of you. Including the two outside with the sniper rifles."

  "Damn." Paul Hamza scowled. "Who spotted us? Was it because of Tripp and me? Your people were watching for us?"

  Orion chuckled. "No. You Earthers are even worse than our own non-magicians at broadcasting your thoughts. To a wizard, you might as well have walked in shouting 'I hope he doesn't realize we're spies from Earth!' So I called Xen. He and Dominic threw on a pair of disguises and popped over to see what you lot were up to. And then you went and kidnapped some nice old gents without a magical bone in their bodies. Really, you ought to have been trying to capture Xen and me." His grin widened. "Not that we would have cooperated, mind you."

  The magicians all went away, and left them to organize the chaos.

  The City Fathers arrived first. In strength.

  "How can we ever trust you again?"

  "You can't." Orobona sighed. "I think it would be best if we just leave. Now, we've raised a few of the old Amma's sons, do you want one of them to become Solti, or would you rather take over the rule of the city yourselves? This time . . . the government needs to be something you do for—or to—yourselves."

  "But, but . . . " The old man who'd been their official head for decades turned back to huddle and whisper with the others.

  Orobona looked over his shoulder at the troops. "There's about fifty of us left. Add the wives and children, any of the orphans we raised. That'll make anywhere from two to three hundred of us. We could go back to the science camp, or better yet, over to the coast where the winters will be warmer."

  The City Fathers broke their huddle.

  "We have decided to try to rule the country ourselves. We respectfully request you stay long enough to . . . transfer power a bit more smoothly than you managed last time."

  Orobona nodded. "Yes. That would be an excellent idea."

  Chapter Forty

  Late Fall 1395

  Tu Lac Village, Vista, Empire of the One

  Crimson frowned at the small group waiting for them. They looked weak again, coughing and bundled up in ragged blankets.

  "They don't look very good." Macaw hung back a bit.

  "I know. Are they starving again? We can't possibly be their only source of food." One of the tribesmen stumbled to the side and sat down, slumped. "They look like cows with the . . . Oh. They're sick. They aren't like us . . . but I'll bet the wine will work." Crimson swung down from Ember's high back. "Get out some of that ordinary wine we were going to try to sell in Steam World. We may need to dope it up."

  "But, but, only animals get diseases, don't they?" Walnut looked appalled, and disinclined to get any nearer.

  Crimson rolled her eyes. "No, people get sick, too. Just, the more magic, the less likely. And living near Lady Gisele, well, it's just not going to happen."

  "Some of the old stories are about plagues. They used to happen in cities a lot." Macaw slid off Brainless and started rooting around in the packhorses' packs. They kept the bubbles pinned to the inside, so they weren't so obviously pulling things out of nowhere.

  Crimson pulled out her pocket flask . . . Contagious disease vectors. I really ought to have paid more attention to the lessons Lady Gisele gave us all. "Walnut, get out our gear. We'll need the glasses.

  Walnut finally dismounted, and dug out their picnic basket, and the glasses.

  "We'll leave the glasses, get new ones."

  Macaw grunted and tugged at the bottle of wine, got the cork out and held it out for Crimson to dribble in a bit of the Wine of the Gods.

  The natives stirred uneasily as she approached with the glasses, bottle of wine tucked under her arm. All their trading had always been from a cautious distance. She stopped at the table and poured a spoonful of the wine in each glass. The spells the God of War and the Goddess of Health and Fertility spread and took over any wine it was added to. Something about "microscopic von neumann machines" which made no sense whatsoever. Except that it worked. This bottle was now as potent as the original.

  The men stirred. Coughed. One man finally stepped up and took up a glass. The leader of the tribe, she thought. He swallowed the wine. Gasped. Took another deep breath as he straightened, relaxed, a smile crossing his face as he took the other glasses to his people.

  "Wow. We could smuggle potions and make a real killing."

  Macaw giggled. "Especially after they're well, and find out what the other effects of the wine are."

  They pulled out all the wine and started doping it.

  A teenager—suddenly healthy—ran off to the village with a bottle in each hand.

  "Gosh, they must all be sick." Macaw recorked another bottle and added it to the array on the table.

  Walnut snickered. "We're going to ruin our Bad Girl image, if we start helping people."

  Crimson shook her head. “Don’t worry, the authorities won’t ever approve of us doing even good things without asking permission first. Ha! We’re the first cross dimensional criminals ever.”

  Chapter Forty-one

  Winter Solstice 1396

  Wizards School, Prairie Coast

  "No. Think of the electromagnetic spectrum. Gather the light."

  Jaime ground his teeth and reached out for the brilliant equatorial sunlight. Tried to forget the freezing cold winter on the far side of the gate, the shock of his brother as a bronze statue . . . He blanked his mind and strangled the light down to a searing bright ball in his hands.

  Nil strolled around and nodded his approval. "Good. Now let's see if we can train you to do something useful with it. By the time we send you lot home, you might even be dangerous."

  Jaime swallowed. Home.

  He'd spent two months surveying a beautiful piece of the coast of Asia.

  The Wizards had placed a corridor from the palace to what, give or take more active tectonics and the lower sea level of the ice age, might be Taiwan. Not an island. If they wanted, they could probably drive to the old science camp. Bring in things from there. They could check on the astronomers who were still clinging to their telescopes, and apparently were part time professors at King's University in Karista.

  In the spring, all the Earthers, and everyone else who wanted to come were going to move there.

  Home.

  This time I'll make it my home.

  I'll be who, and what, I am.

  He looked at the glowing fireball in his hands.

  Or who I am becoming.

  Map

  About the Author

  I was born and raised in California, and have lived more than half my life, now, in Texas.

  Wonderful plac
e. I caught almost the first bachelor I met here, and we’re coming up on our thirty-fifth anniversary.

  My degree's in Geology. After working for an oil company for almost ten years as a geophysicist, I “retired” to raise children. As they grew, I added oil painting, sculpting and throwing clay, breeding horses, volunteering in libraries and for the Boy Scouts, and treasurer for a friend’s political campaign. Sometime in those busy years, I turned a love of science fiction into a part time job reading slush (Mom? Someone is paying you to read??!!)

  I've always written, published a few short stories. But now that the kids have flown the nest, I'm calling writing a full time job.

  Empire is my twelfth novel. I've also issued three collections of novellas and short stories, and published separately three other short stories.

  I'm planning to bring out at least four more books this year. Two of them are manuscripts that I've pulled out the batch making the rounds of publishers, so they should go up quickly. I've got two new books in the Wine of the Gods Universe under way. And then a third "Zoey Ivers" book in the Doors series. So I may manage to squeak in a fifth book before the end of the year.

  I need to find the time to get more books out in print, out to Kobo, Sony, B&N . . . I need to find the time to invent a time machine . . .

  Other Books by Pam Uphoff

  Wine of the Gods Series:

  Outcasts and Gods

  Exiles and Gods (Three Novellas)

  The Black Goats

  Explorers

  Spy Wars

  Comet Fall

  A Taste of Wine (Seven Tales)

  Dark Lady

  Growing Up Magic (Four Novellas)

  Young Warriors

  God of Assassins

  Empire of the One

  Earth Gate (2014)