A Taste of Wine (Wine of the Gods Book 7)

by Pam Uphoff

  After an early dinner, he and Andrai dropped down into the basement and checked up on the Oners. The two who were still ambulatory were planning on going out.

  "They sound like they want to find a riot." Damien muttered, and sought the recording from the morning. Fast forwarded it to laughter and a slamming door. They sounded giddy, almost drunk.

  "One, who'd have thought they'd be so easy to control."

  "The mob mentality must really take over. By the One, Expo, did you really think that man would burn himself with the building?"

  "Never. Shocked the Hell out of me."

  Faint noise in the back ground.

  "Guess we'd better go fill Ojge in on the night's work. You start, I'll fix dinner."

  "Breakfast."

  "Whatever."

  Damien and Andrai listened quietly to how the Oners had mentally influenced a mob into arson. Then the Oners speculated that they could influence even larger groups.

  "And they're preparing to go out now?" Damien fast forwarded through the day's recordings but couldn't find anything more specific than finding a mob and taking it over, experimenting on enlarging it, steering it.

  "I think I'll try following them from a safe distance." Damien said.

  Andrai snorted. "If you can figure out what that is. Be careful, damn it. Take your rifle, and if you must shoot one of them, kill him this time. I'm half minded to take them all out just because we can."

  "Nah, we can't kill them yet, we don't know what they should be hearing about any time now."

  "I'm beginning to worry. There hasn't been anything from the Gate Command for some time. I know they try to keep their power down to minimize Oner intercepts, but we've always picked up scraps before."

  "It could be the ionosphere was disrupted by the comet. So radio signals aren't bouncing."

  Andre's shoulders relaxed a bit. "That could well be."

  ***

  Lefty nodded to Old Bert Howard and saluted as the General and Captain Gerard walked in. A man with Lieutenant's insignia came last.

  "Good, we're all here. Lefty, you haven't heard Bert's story. Bert is living across the street from our Earth spies. Damien has lunch with him fairly regularly. He dropped a hint that there'd been Oner spy action."

  Bert nodded. "He's under the impression that someone was trying to assassinate the General at that fire a few days ago."

  The lieutenant tapped his notes. "I talked to some people who were watching the fire from their balcony. They didn't realize three men had joined them until suddenly one of them who was pointing some odd contraption down the street suddenly jumped and screamed, and collapsed, bleeding from his shoulder. The other two hustled him away. Other people on the street talked about another man with a strange weapon. They said he stood up on his horse's back and aimed his metal thing up at a balcony. It made a very loud bang, and the horse bucked him off. He ran off after it. The only description we have is that the horse was a pinto, so obviously the man was a Traveler. I checked around, got a number of confirmatory witnesses that 'that Damien fellow who delivers things' was there, riding one of his pinto horses."

  The General eyed Lefty. "So we need you to try and figure out just what's going on."

  Lefty nodded. "Sounds like another spy war. Or if they're trying to take you out, the prelude to an invasion. Although from what the wizards are saying, there's enough damage in southern Auralia to keep them occupied for a decade. If the Amma's there, and not helping Oners to invade Earth. I'll head down to the docks district and see what's going on. Bert, who's there?"

  "Just Andrai and Damien. Andrai was hurt in the riot around Ba'al's Temple. I doubt she'll be going out much."

  "Drat. Damien's damnably hard to read. Max is an open book. That terror Andrai . . . maybe I can get close enough in the alley to eavesdrop on her thoughts. I'll go see what I can pick up tonight. I should be able to find Damien tomorrow for sure."

  The General dismissed them all, and Lefty grabbed a small carriage and driver so he could ride back with Bert. "Tell me what's been going on for the last, umm, has it really been twelve years?"

  Bert chuckled. "Yes, and I'm delighted the General found me this cushy job instead of me retiring. Well, Damien hasn't changed a bit. And Andrai is just as mean as ever. Max is married and has two kids. Code, the boy they sort of adopted, sort of hired, married Vani, the farm girl they sort of adopted, sort of hired, and they have two kids. Damien's still got a bunch of pinto horses, and his reputation as reliable and honest is rock solid. If he weren't a damned Earther, I'd say he was an outstanding citizen and ought to run for the City Council, or even representative of the Drover's Association. I might not even have been shocked by him associating with Duchess Nicole."

  Lefty sighed. "Just as well she married a Duke who lives far away. We don't have to worry about him influencing the Sword Prince."

  They got out a few blocks away from Bass Lane. Bert walked home and Lefty headed for the next alley. If he could get close enough to the house, could he hear the two Earther's talking? Read Andrai's thoughts?

  He froze in the shadows as two men turned off of Rock Fish and headed up hill. They walked past without noticing him, but he felt their solid shields, just a bit mushy in the higher frequencies. Oners. I guess we haven't run out of One World spies, yet.

  And slipping through the shadows a respectful distance behind them, Damien Malder. His mental activity was even more elusive than usual.

  Lefty hoped the Oners found him as hard to read as he did, and fell in behind.

  A steep gully between two of the City's hills was infested with shacks and some of the poorest people in the City. The eyesore was a nearly constant point of debate in the City Council. Everyone wanted Gullytown cleaned up, but where would the people go? Nobody wanted them, either. No doubt that they'd been having a great time the last two nights, and a mob of them was trying to stretch it out for a third night of rioting and looting.

  ***

  Damien stopped well back and eyed the men spilling out of the two taverns and swaggering up and down the road, such as it was. This was going to get nasty. He looked around to see if there was a good vantage point from which to watch the Oners at work.

  The only thing moving behind him were two huge dogs. A great dane, with that mottled gray and black color, blue merle they called it, back on Earth. And the biggest damn boxer he'd ever laid eyes on. The red dog wasn't as tall as the dane, but probably outweighed him. Muscular. They were eyeing the mob as well, and whining eagerly.

  Damien stayed out of their way, and eased forward to catch fragments of the mob's babbling.

  " . . . Greensward Street Bankers, we ought to show them . . . "

  " . . . where some of the Royals live. I'd like to explain to a Princess just what I think she's good for."

  The babbling died down as the Oners walked out into the street.

  "Wouldn't you like to burn down the Palace?"

  The crowd sort of swayed, and Damien caught his breath. Is it really that easy for them? He pulled out the C&W and flipped the stock open.

  The Oner's were talking about distilled liquor and rags and matches, as he took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The Oner jerked and collapsed.

  "Get him!" the other one pointed straight at Damien. Damien turned and ran hoping to get out of range before the man thought to stop him mentally. He dodged around two more dogs, big black German Shepherds, alsacs they called them here, trotting down the street. Looking back, he spotted the four dogs, and slowed to watch. They spread out across the narrow dirt street and sat down.

  The mob had torches and the full moon, and they stopped dead at the sight of the dogs. Stood swaying dumbly under the push of the Oner's mental control.

  "By the One, those are dogs, just ignore them." The Oner pushed to the fore and walked out and kicked the great dane in the chest. The big dog grinned and turned and peed on the man's leg. The Oner launched another kick, this one to a more vulnerable part of the dog's anatomy
. The dane yelped and jumped away. The boxer's leap hit the Oner from the side and knocked him flat. The other three closed in. The mob broke and fled. Damien kept backing away until he bumped into someone.

  "Hell Hounds. They belong to the God of Just Deserts. I've never seen them kill someone before."

  In the dim light Damien recognized Lefty Lebonift.

  "I wonder what that one did, to win such nasty Just Deserts. Go on, I'll deal with this."

  Damien turned and walked away.

  Shipping picked up again; word about the comet had gone out and most ships had taken refuge in ports or in the south, up rivers, for the Solstice. But now they ventured out again. The long cold winter hung on, and the river ice was still solid on the Spring Equinox. The cold rains finally abated enough to get crops planted and hay, however coarse and overgrown, harvested. Max and Jeinah returned, with all the kids. Code and Vani stayed at the farm to fill the barns with hay and watch the pregnant mares.

  "Thank the Old Gods you didn't breed them early." Max grinned at Damien, knowing full well he hadn't planned on breeding them at all. "We were going through the food so fast, I figured it was time we shifted back here."

  "Yes. There's not a lot of work, but we're looking good for food. The king has been slowly releasing wheat from the royal granary, so the prices have stayed low, and there's been no panic." Damien shrugged. "On the other hand, there's only a single Oner, and he's apparently more stranded than we are. So we can pretend we're just ordinary haulers and get back to work."

  "I wonder when the Earth will contact us again?" Max glanced toward his house and family. "Not that I'm in a hurry, mind you."

  Captain Andrews snorted. She was getting back to normal quickly. "Damien, I think you need to haul something to Fascia. Perhaps in the Fall. I'm getting some very odd scraps of radio from there. It sounds like Army transmissions, not Oners. It sounds like we're taking over the country."

  "Really? Could we have actually pulled something off under the cover of the comet? As soon as the border has settled down a bit, I'll head out, and find out." It would be great to be in the south for the winter, and get a personal look at the situation.

  And perhaps, if the Army really had captured Auralia, he could bag a visit home. But not for long. He had a business to run, after all.

  About the Author

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

  Wonderful place. I caught almost the first bachelor I met here, and we’re coming up on our thirty-third 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, publish a few short stories. But now that the kids have flown the nest, I'm calling writing a full time job.

  Other Titles by the Author

  Wine of the Gods Series:

  Outcasts and Gods

  Exiles and Gods (three novellas)

  The Black Goats

  Explorers

  Spy Wars

  Comet Winter

  A Taste of Wine (A collection of short stories)

  The Dark Lady

  Short Stories:

  Fancy Farmer

  Lawyers of Mars

  Lost Boy

  Mall Santa