by Pam Uphoff
Cactus peered at it. "Nasty. I don't think this Teri liked, umm, 'Ask'? Is Ask a name?"
"Yep. She's a very powerful witch, and knows her herbs and medicines."
Cactus frowned at the bottles. "Why do you guys bother with medicines, if you can do these sorts of spells?"
Nil nodded. "Good question. Fast healing often requires a fast drawdown of the body's reserves of chemicals and basic compounds. Sickness is often caused by a deficit in some of them. Those herbs are full of all sorts of stuff, and they often contain complex compounds that are almost what we're creating with a spell. So they cut out some steps, supply what the body needs, and sometimes the most important thing, they convince the victim that something is being done, and that they are going to get well."
Kevi scratched his nose. "For all they've both got huge gardens, you don't often see either Ask or Lady Gisele doling out herbs. Except the cooking kind."
Nil nodded. "Those compounds that are partway to what you need? You discover them by looking at all the odd compounds in nature, seeing what they do, what minor changes in them will do, what they will do when teamed up with other compounds. Those herb gardens are research material, as much as anything. Gisele's been playing with strange chemical compounds for fourteen centuries, and isn't done yet. If she'd started with simple chemicals, and worked up, she wouldn't have but barely started."
When they'd gone through them all, Kevi started to load them all back in his saddle bags, then caught Nil's disapproving eye. "Err, I suppose I could leave them here? Interesting teaching tool, but you'd best not let the students know where you keep them."
Nil raised an eyebrow, amused.
Did I just lecture a master wizard? Not to mention all around scary guy, Nil?
"Sure did. Good thing I've mellowed with age." The old wizard looked back at Warric. "Revenge is rarely worth it. Especially striking out randomly."
Kevi eyed the bottles. "But learning the mage gene removal spell would make the Arbolian Priests' next attack really fun. And Nil can probably teach you about the Chain spell and how to break it."
Nil nodded. "That's one of the goals I'm aiming their training at. Rustle has actual experience with the Arbolian version. If she wasn't so worried about Q, I 'spect she'd be down here already. Insisting on helping you."
"Q? What happened?" Kevi asked.
"The Earthers attacked a wage protest on one of their mining worlds. Q stopped them, but caught a bullet. Warric, here, jumped through a gate, got enough power past his Chain to shield, grabbed her and brought her back through the gate. He saved her—by putting himself back under the power of his Priest. The whole family is prickly about it."
Warric nodded. And watched as Nil scooped up the bottles and took them upstairs.
Kevi pulled the Xen bottle out of his pocket
Warric leaned forward and started grinning. And wrote out in invisible letters on the table top. A present for the Arbolian priests.
Kevi swallowed. "That could bring down your whole country. Doesn't the Church choose the king?"
They should not. They are too corrupt to be left in charge.
The other Arbolians were nodding emphatically.
Kevi stiffened his back. "I recommend that you stay a few more months, learn more spells, more fighting techniques. 'Cause, man, we are going to need them."
The fiery man nodded agreement, but frowned at him.
Kevi crossed his arms. "Of course I'm coming. I'm the God of Thieves. I've never stolen a whole country before. Should be fun."
Trill grabbed Kevi as soon as they were back on the beach. "You seemed to know the spell to add the witch gene, without changing anything else. I want you to do that to me."
The Fiery Guy reached out, stopped himself from touching her, then started scribbling in the sand. Her brother grabbed Kevi's arm and hauled him away.
"Give them some privacy to argue in. Now, this spell, what is it going to do to her?"
"The people who get magic genes, they don't change much, and most of them only sort of ever get any use out of the genes. See, it's like you have to grow up with the genes doing things to your brain for them to ever work really well. Trill looks pretty young, so she might learn how to use magic. All the kids that inherit the genes in the next generation are normal—the genes work in them."
Kevi squirmed. "I, umm, am personally one of the successful ones. My dad, too. Umm, there was a comet, see, and we, they, needed all the magicians they could find or make. My dad was from a Mage family, but with a non-mage father. But he got the basic training and chants . . . so he was already partly trained when he got the power genes. I was . . . "
"Gibbering and talking too much?" Cactus suggested.
"I was eighteen and it worked just fine."
Trill and Warric had stopped arguing and listened to him.
Trill nodded decisively. "So give it to me. Right now."
Kevi gulped and brought out the glittery string again. Wrapped it around her and watched it sink into every cell, find the X chromosomes and insert themselves, a neat trick involving untwisting the DNA and splicing in the segment. It was really neat to watch. He blinked back to awareness and a bunch of disapproving glares. Hey, it wasn't his fault her bosom was right there and handy for study. That hadn't been what he was actually looking at.
He sighed and decided to not explain.
Chapter Twenty-three
Witches Bearing Gifts
"Right. There's a power short circuit that causes the flaming effect. A steady power drain to fuel the heat spell. And one for the sunspots. And then another power drain for a protective spell so you don't burn yourself."
Warric eyed the nice woman with caution. She reminded him a little of the female instructors at the House of Wisdom, and a lot of Trace and Trill's mother. Both cheerful and determined. And as immobile as a mountain. Rustle Neverdaut. The mother of the women he'd rescued.
"All things considered, I'm surprised you have enough energy left to stand up."
Warric nodded. Most days . . . I used to feel like I barely could. Now, with the Chain gone it's better. Much better.
"So . . . I would like to start by removing the heat spell and the short circuit. Then we can work on the physical morphs."
Warric shuddered. Picked up the pen and forced himself to write.
No. I will need this, to return and destroy the power of the priests.
She cocked her head. "So you have a revolution in mind?"
He nodded.
"Everything . . . all these spells and morphs could be easily replicated with an illusion. Or recreated briefly with a spell web. So you can turn them off and on as needed."
He sat up, solar prominences snapping around his head.
"Shall we do this?"
He nodded. The snapping died down. And he shivered suddenly in the cold. Headache. Pain in his jaw joints . . . he put his hands . . . Not flaming! To the horns at the corner of his jaws and they crumbled to powder.
"Now that I can safely touch you, let's see what they did to your vocal cords . . . Ouch! Well, they're going to have to regrow. It'll take, at a guess, two weeks. I've . . . there. Got the regression to stem cell stage started." Rustle stood up and stretched. Grinned.
"I'll be back every couple of days to check, and then start teaching you the illusions. Now go find a mirror, and kiss your girlfriend."
***
She was back two days later. With company.
Warric eyed the teenage girl's brilliant red and gold hair. It couldn't possibly be natural. He swallowed, and wished he could talk. Two weeks. I can manage another two weeks of silence.
The girl must have caught his dubious look. She grinned, showing a whole lot of teeth. "I'm here to demonstrate physical morphs. Watch this."
She kicked off her sandals and proceeded to strip off her pants. "The feet and tail are the worst bits, and yes I do use a whopping big painkiller spell while I do this."
Warric blinked. There quite definitely was a
tail growing out from under the long tunic shirt . . . and metallic red and gold scales growing and spreading on her legs and her toes were lengthening . . . she pulled her tunic up to free the wings growing under it . . . no sexual organs visible, nor breasts, not that she'd been very bosomy before . . . her neck lengthened and her jaw bulged out.
She dropped to a four-legged stance, her grin showing rather a lot of pointy teeth.
"Mom won't let me change on Embassy. She says we need to not give people the wrong impression."
Trill boggled. "You really are a dragon. That's . . . Actually I'm surprised you have the brain connections to handle two extra limbs . . . and a tail."
The dragon sat back like a dog, and wrapped her tail around and wiggled the tip. "It's prehensile. I was hexapedal in utero, the witch who designed me—Not a nice lady!—switched me back to looking human just before I was born, but Q, who's technically a umm, half aunt, but did about half the work of raising me, switched me back and forth regularly until I grasped power and could do it myself."
Trill nodded. "That's the way it would have to be . . . " She eyed the dragon closely. "You're very thin now. Your mass stays the same."
Wavelength grinned. "Yep, although some people think there may be air, water, and even dust absorbed from the atmosphere as I breathe while changing." She glanced at Rustle.
Rustle grinned. "I think you guys met Zodiac? He's much the same, except his family doesn't like him to change, so he's not got the practice, nor the reinforcement of the nervous system."
"I keep telling him to practice. But his family's such a mess, they interfere." The dragon dipped her head and pulled the tunic off. "I can fly with it around my arm shoulders and be minimally decent if I change back when I get to wherever I'm going. But today I'm going to swim. Too."
Warric and Trill stepped back as she spread her long fragile wings and leaped into the air.
Behind him, Trace swallowed. "Right. You guys are officially scary now."
Rustle snickered. "Wavelength and Zodiac are the only dragons around now. I wanted to show you that physical transformations, completely under your own control, are quick and easy. And completely reversible."
Warric touched the hinges of his jaw, the spots across his skull that use to sport short stubby horns.
"Yes, yours were minimal. But you four may want disguises. Not just illusions, but physical changes so you are not identified."
Trill nodded. "I think they already know. I don't think we can ever go home."
The spells, the mental twists to form the power and produce illusions were incredible. Small, gentle and delicate. Producing exactly what was wanted.
And I used to be so proud of my fireballs! I was a brute with a club, she's a dancer with a stiletto.
He caught the quick flash of her grin and tried to tighten up his shields.
I fooled the priests and gods for years. I can cease amusing a witch!
She shook her head. "I'm having a very hard time reading you. Your shields are strong and tight, but not . . . Nil's lecturing about frequencies, right? Your shields aren't covering all frequencies. You leak a bit, top and bottom of the spectrum."
She leaned back and sighed. "I had a very nasty encounter with your God of War . . . twenty-three years ago? The memories are making me more wary of you than I should be. You are remarkably sane. I need to respect your privacy."
Warric scribbled on the pad of paper he carried. Tell me what happened.
"I was . . . helping with the defense of a small town in Arrival. We were under siege, your Arbolian Army was . . . I suppose it was the opening move to conquer Arrival. There were three priests . . . I handled their troop of little gods easily enough. But the major god! Brutes with clubs are very dangerous, believe me.
"I broke the Chain spell. The handle was 'Control the Gods.' I don't know if they used that regularly or if there were other handles. We'll teach you how to keep a Chain spell at bay when someone is trying to put one on you.
"But that god was insane, in a berserk rage. All he wanted was to kill people. The priest, me, whatever. I was badly wounded, but I killed both the priest and the god."
Warric scribbled. They caught you?
"Hmm. They had some interesting techniques for summoning. They teleported me to them from several hundred feet away. I've never figured out how they did that, so I have no idea what the range is."
She sat back and frowned at him. "You're going to be in danger, as soon as they realize you've come home."
***
And when no one was watching, they worked with the potions, the spells to remove the power genes.
And started accumulating a stash.
The smugglers returned, delivering a load of food to the school, and getting a day at the beach in return. Or three, as they stretched it out.
"Arbolia?" Crimson shook her head. "It's not that we won't go there, it's that we don't know how to find it. We can, when we're not rushed, make gates. But where they go is pretty much random. As far as I've heard, only Q can put gates right where she wants them."
"Why do you even want to go back there?" Macaw shuddered. "What they did to you is horrible."
They exchanged questioning looks, then Warric pulled out a little bottle.
"It . . . " his voice slid off into a squeak. He sighed and reached for paper.
"It removes power genes." Trace frowned at Warric. "Why tell them, and no one else?"
Warric shrugged, watching the smugglers as they thought through the possibilities.
"You're going back for revenge." Walnut nodded. "I understand wanting to, but is it really smart?"
Zodiac—who still looked like a perfectly normal boy, and not at all draconic—grinned. "You need a squirt gun."
"It's some kind of resin, in sheets, and they must shape it while it's hot. Dye it . . . "
Warric grinned at Trill's absorption in the material the "squirt guns" were made from, rather than their potential as weapons.
"It's so much lighter than glass. If we could use it as the backing for photographic plates instead of glass . . ."
Trace nodded. "Yeah, that would make transport easier, and positioning the scope . . . unless it's fragile . . . "
Scientists. We're a pack of bloody scientists thinking we can overthrow a church the whole world believes in. Fears.
Kevi poked at the weapons. "I thought we'd dope their food or water. Can splashing it on their skin work?"
Only one way to find out . . . Warric braced himself as he uncorked the bottle. Poured it on himself.
The world darkened, grayed out a bit . . . no the colors were just as bright, but some faint overlay on living things was gone. The bright glow of the people around him was gone.
They were all staring at him, aghast.
He nodded. "It works." A growl that jumped to a squeak. One more week, then hopefully my vocal cords will be normal, I hope.
He grabbed his pad of paper.
Kevi, we need potions to replace our magic genes.
Marius looked over his shoulder. "Lots of them. You used half a bottle, that ought to have dosed a dozen people. And we'll need to work on that shield Nil showed you, so we can safely handle the potions."
By the end of the week they'd accidentally sprayed and splashed themselves—and jumped in the ocean to get it off and then used the replacement potions—so many times they'd gotten over any timidity they might have had at the start. And they got good at the chemical shield.
Trill had them make versions without the layers to get it through the stomach and absorbed into the bloodstream. Experimented with several different liquids instead of, or in addition to, water. And then branched out to try anything. Slightly soapy water turned out to work best.
The squirt guns only had a range of a few feet, and rarely delivered enough potion to completely stop any of them. But the smugglers had gone off and returned with more powerful sprayers.
And protective gear.
"They spray poisons with
these, to kill insects on crops. See? You can load up the backpack reservoir, pump up the pressure . . . "
It was awesome.
Are we insane? Warric swallowed and spoke carefully. "It will still be best if we can sneak quietly in, pour potions on every bit of food and water we can find, and sneak quietly away." He almost made it through the whole sentence with no squeaks.
Everyone nodded.
Crimson eyed the sprayers. "Yeah. We like sliding in and out quietly too. But sometimes you wind up in a fight anyway. You may need a weapon like this."
"And swords and crossbows." Trace nodded . . . looked around. "We'll need horses, especially if we have to sneak all the way from Arrival to Paree."
Warric shook his head. "Rustle said she could find our world, and probably influence where on it a gate attached. So we shouldn't have to go that far."
"You'll still need horses." Kevi grinned. "I'll go steal some."
"Wait until we're ready to go. I'm still working on my illusions." Warric shivered. I'm really going to do this. And drag everyone I love into the fight with me.
***
And they kept analyzing the other potions, the ones Kevi hadn't handed over to Nil. Some of them were pretty useful, some downright scary.
Warric looked over to where Kevi was arguing with Cactus. Again.
"Of course I'm coming."
Cactus frowned at him. "Are you insane? You have no reason to do this."
Kevi looked offended. "You expect me to miss a chance to steal a whole country from a corrupt shadow government? No way. This is going to be epic."
"Just so long as you don't try to keep it." Warric's voice was dry, and faintly menacing.
Kevi sniffed. "I wouldn't know what to do with it. Don't know any fences who I could sell it to. If it were up to me, I'd just walk away afterwards. But you lot may have some more ambitious ideas."
"Just walk away . . . " Warric nodded slowly. "That is an excellent idea. All we really need to do is sneak in and poison the water supply.
