Empire of the One (Wine of the Gods Book 14) Read online

  "You'll be out of here now, but the ladies are welcome to stay."

  "If we set up shop somewhere it should be close to here." Kail walked around him and looked up at the man. "We are not in your line of business, if I understand you correctly. We just buy and sell a few things and need a shop. What are rents like around here?"

  Trust a witch to not be insulted. And make a man believe her. Her influence was so subtle Endi could barely feel it.

  Kail was just a Crescent Moon, but she could channel. And she was very powerful. Their expert in the dimensions. She was the one who'd found this world. Who'd spotted the stylized unicorn on the government buildings, and realized they'd found their enemy.

  "They run about eight unis a square meter. Dirt cheap." The man was actually acting friendly. "I know a man that has a place . . . "

  Fifteen minutes later they had the key to a hideously warped and rundown building with a store in front, work space in back and enough 'office space' upstairs for them to live in.

  "All we need is something to make and sell." Este snickered.

  "We need to go shopping and see what sorts of things they use that we can make." Deep said. "Let's report, get moved in and then explore some more."

  Heil was frowning around the street. "Guys, you need to fake your auras, or the first person with power to show up is going to recognize us as something alien."

  "The first people did, actually." Endi looked around, but the drunks had wandered off. So their Magic Users are spread out from highest to lowest? Maybe I need to check out the elite.

  Heil closed her eyes. "Look they all had this sort of like a layer under all the individual stuff. I . . . recognize it. How strange."

  Endi could see, with his mental vision, her attention sinking down, down . . .

  "What? Oh way down there?" Kail bit her lip. "We don't usually even look down there. Damn big hole in our shields, isn't it?"

  "Umm. Everyone has that?" Endi duplicated the odd layer that she had, and he lacked. He wrapped it around his aura, and like a fig leaf it was entirely inadequate.

  "You need to tuck everything in." Heil was looking all big eyed at him.

  Endi knew he was shut up so tightly he was mentally invisible to a magician's usual way of looking at people. His constant mental shields were strong. But at that deep level he realized he was emotionally visible. No, not his emotions. It was more like his center was showing. Naked to anyone who focused on him. A startling revelation. Is that why she's always chased me? He stretched down and extended his mental shield, shut it all off, leaving only the "Oner" layer.

  "Yeah. That's better. But, umm perhaps something of yourself has to show."

  Endi let his shield thin a bit all over, to let just a shadow of himself show. With the under layer.

  "Perfect."

  Kail's brilliant aura gleamed for a second as she readjusted shields and tucked in all the corners. Smart, powerful. His little sister. All dimmed down she copied the oddity and tucked it underneath.

  "Perfect Q. I mean Kail." Heil blushed. They'd been practicing what they thought were One World style names for over a month.

  I wish we understood the Withione, Neartuone, and Clostuone titles. Or names. Or whatever the heck they are. If we use them wrong . . . or is there a greater risk using what we know of old earth-style family names. Maybe they don't use them here, anymore.

  The others' aura changes took more work, and both Endi and Kail applied a bit of careful pressure, here and there.

  "You need to tuck in a bit yourself, Heil." Endi tried to keep his voice apologetic, and she blushed. She'd been so busy looking at the others . . . she pulled in and wrapped herself up to not show everything.

  "Then again, you might be so quick, you don't have to worry. I guess we just figured out why we needed you here." Este nodded in satisfaction. "What we need is someone sober to test ourselves against. Find out if we can pass while we're within running distance of the gate."

  They surveyed the mildewed carpets downstairs and opted to sleep on the bare boards of the upper floor, with the windows open.

  Endi woke at dawn, some faint noise . . . He opened his eyes to see a wild animal creeping along the wall and pulled his sword out the bubble he kept on himself at all times.

  The faint sound was enough to wake the rest of them.

  "What the hell is that." Este breathed.

  The black and white animal froze under their united gaze.

  "Don't scare it. We don't want it to spray." Endi kept his voice down to a faint breath.

  "The head shape is wrong for a skunk." At the sound of Kail's voice, it shot across the floor and out a window. "I think it was some sort of feline."

  "Some sort of wildcat?" Este frowned. "The color's all wrong, but I've heard there used to be a type of wildcat, well tamecat, that people kept as a pet."

  "Like dogs." Heil looked out the window. "Domesticated carnivores. Dad's movies have them, sometimes, but they looked a lot fluffier than that. I think they came in all colors."

  Endi nodded. "My granddad knows about them, so they must have gone extinct sometime after the fall of the Wizard Tyrants of Scoone. Seven or eight hundred years ago."

  Kail pulled a cold breakfast out of her bubble, and they got to work on their building.

  Endi showed Kail and Este how to work wood magically. The old building needed to be gently and carefully unwarped and unsagged and spruced up inside and out. Wizards were naturally adept at working with the solidified sunshine of wood, and he left them to it and disposed of the rotting carpet and some moldering furniture by scooping them into a bubble and casting it loose.

  Deep and Heil took the cash card and went shopping. A rather rundown looking hardware store supplied paint, brushes, hammers and nails.

  "Amazing what a coat of paint can do, eh?"

  Endi looked out the dirty windows. A tall dark haired man was admiring the newly painted 'Knickknacks' sign Este was hanging on the front wall.

  "What sort of knickknack are you going to be selling?"

  "Well, we'll start with flower vases and such and just see what sells."

  The man looked Este over. "I'm Sergeant Arko Clostuone, precinct 789. I'm always pleased to see an honest business move into the neighborhood."

  Kail walked out the front door with a pail of soapy water and laughed at that. "Pleased to meet you Sergeant, I'm Kail Dewulfe, this is Este Randle. I certainly hope we won't be adding to your workload." She put her cleaning supplies down long enough to shake hands and then started in on the windows. The cop hadn't blinked at the names, so they must have gotten them right.

  And a policeman. Couldn't have hoped for a better person to try the names out on.

  From spying on the Oners who'd been found spying on them, and from the stolen records of the Earth's Army, they'd managed a sketchy study of the Oners' society.

  Very sketchy.

  Kail chattered happily on. "We do realize that this isn't the best neighborhood around, but the rent is cheap and the space is exactly what we need. We don't have much cash, so I doubt we'll be much of a target for thieves. Do you recommend burglar alarms? Dogs?"

  Sergeant Clostuone—or was it Sergeant Arko, for Oners?—barked a laugh. "I doubt you could afford the permit for effective watch dogs. Not to mention how much a properly trained one costs."

  "Well, yes but do we really need an actual trained dog? I suspect anything that barked would work just fine." Este shrugged.

  "Without a certificate of professional training, your liability insurance costs will skyrocket." Arko sniffed. "And they are plenty expensive, trained or not. Puppies run two thousand and up, last I checked."

  Endi walked out. "With all of us here, we'd hardly need a dog to scare thieves off. Why don't we head down town. Window shopping, my Mom used to call it."

  Heil popped her head out the door. "Yeah, we need to get some ideas, and I want to see what Parisian women are wearing."

  Este snickered. "There goes next month's
rent." Deep jabbed him as she walked out to join them. More introductions and hand shakes.

  Endi let the others do the talking while he analyzed the cells from the policeman's hand.

  Arko gave them all a jaundiced look. "Five of you for one little store?"

  "Ah, just for helping fix it up." Este said. "And it's a good excuse to get out of t'country and into The City. Okay, everybody admire the sign while I clean up."

  The windows were sparkling clean and Arko was looking a bit dazed by the three good looking women by the time Este returned. The policeman bid them farewell, trying to return to his former stern business-only face.

  "Looks like we're definitely on the right World." Endi muttered. "He's got the One X chromosome."

  They all nodded.

  "And he's a policeman. Didn't see anything alien about us at all." Heil grinned. "Now about this window shopping . . ." Greatly daring, they took the tram.

  Endi tried to copy the natives' ease with the mechanical transport, and only garnered a few impatient looks from the horde of strangers that quickly surrounded them. They made him nervous, as much for their complete blank eyed indifference as for their proximity.

  They split up slightly, trying to look like two couples and an extra, instead of an eye attracting group, and dawdled, looking in the windows, but with even more attention on the crowds around them. The witches cast illusions on their clothes, and changed them subtly as they watched other women. Endi changed a few details of his own shirt-and-slacks generic garb.

  The eye catchers in the windows . . . some would be simple to make, if they could find the raw material. Lots of glass and ceramics. Metals. Cookware, bowls and plates for serving and eating. Vases. But a lot of things that ran on electricity.

  "This is going to be quite the learning experience."

  Este nodded. "Let's do a little shopping. We're going to need to experiment with these . . . things."

  ***

  Este was fumbling his way through a so-called children's tutorial on a so-called basic computer when the three winos returned.

  "It's all your fault, isn't it?" Bald with gray fringe huffed angrily at him. His breath could kill at close range, but there were no alcoholic ingredients. "You cured us didn't you?"

  "We didn't even get an anal probe." Short hair glared.

  "Which two days ago we probably would have enjoyed." Black hair had gotten articulate too.

  "Umm, sorry?" Este eyed the trio. They really were sober.

  "So now, being sober, we're just disgusted with ourselves. We're going to have to clean up, and next thing you know, we'll be getting jobs."

  Jobs. "Do any of you know anything about computers? This just doesn't make any sense to me."

  "Ah, don't bother with tutorials, they're for children, not Space Aliens."

  In seconds they had the computer doing everything but sitting up and rolling over.

  Endi breezed in with grocery bags and grinned. "First rule of adopting waifs. No lice allowed. Gentlemen, there is a bathroom upstairs if you want to take turns, and we'll see what we can do about clean clothes."

  "Smart ass." Onni muttered.

  But Onni, the bald one, Icku, the short haired one, and Anki, the dark haired one, were happy to show the Space Aliens how to set up shop properly, how to connect to the electric grid, and how to market the knickknacks the three witches were producing by running their fingers over rocks, scrap metal and broken glass.

  The witches were careful to not let the former winos see how the stuff was made.

  Most importantly, once sober and clean, the former winos with their local ID opened a bank account for the business and kept the Space Aliens in cash cards.

  Heil had brought two young Hell Hounds along. Or more likely, been ordered by her father to have them handy to protect her. They let them wander the neighborhood, imitating homeless mutts. They eluded all attempts to capture them by the locals who saw the big dogs as easy money. They probably didn't have anything to do with why their shop was never robbed, although the number of people who were barked at and chased, and occasionally peed on was rather large. Only Whitey got the full up Just Deserts treatment from Rusty.

  "I thought you said the puppies acted like normal dogs?" Endi kept glancing out the window. "I expect someone is going to call the police over this."

  Heil glanced out and blushed. "Oh, I doubt it. The whole neighborhood must think he deserves being humped by a dog, or it just wouldn't happen."

  Endi shook his head. "And it has nothing to do with him hitting on you this morning. Remind me to be polite to you."

  "The problem is that you are."

  Kail snickered and laid an illusion over both dogs to change their appearance. Smaller and mangier, they attracted less attention.

  Three weeks into the business, their income was pitiful, but with occasional infusions of gold they could imitate a successful business well enough to pass, and start figuring out how to spy on the One. Reading newspapers was insufficient. There were too many things they just didn't have the cultural history to understand.

  And there were no books. Everything but the cheapest daily newspapers was electronic. Which, given their lack of identification cards were difficult to purchase. They got the winos to help, but what the winos bought was often not useful to outsiders.

  "No Onni, we do not need porn. When I said biology, I was thinking, you know, maybe a textbook. Same with Chemistry. And this 'Best Selling Expose of Political Scandals' is not really helpful." Kail looked at the reader with exasperation. "Why can't I just walk into a store and buy a book?"

  "Because the grid is faster. All you need is an account." Onni grinned.

  Playing with the Space Aliens. Este snorted. "What we need is a kiddie book, explaining the way your government works."

  They gave into the demands of the three locals and bought a "vid screen."

  Onni, Icku and Anki had not been cured of their vid addiction, and developed an annoying habit of explaining the shows to them. Useful, but still annoying.

  "See, she's Of the One, and he's not, so if he gets caught, Giiiik!" He drew a finger across his neck.

  "But it's okay if the servant gets fresh?" Kail tried to draw them out.

  "Oh, yeah, see, he's Servaone, like me. Not a very high position, but at least he is Of the One. In Real Life, she wouldn't have anything to do with him. He'd cruise the bars downtown and all the young Multitude and Halfer women would look him over, 'cause a daughter would at least be a halfer and they have better job prospects. Of course a son would be a waste of time. Lots'o those in the orphanages."

  "I see." The Oner X chromosome confers status as well as power for magic. "Well, actually I don't. Do those people do any work, or are they just rich?"

  "Work? Well, some call it work. They're Magic." Anki sat back and smiled at their expressions. Then his eyes saddened. "Used to be I was too. Drowned it in alcohol."

  "Real Life is more like the 'Farmer Afar' show, where the One carries on like a Medieval Lord, and they think the natives are worthless."

  "And Multitude who emigrate are no better than the natives." Onni changed the channel.

  "Priests and Princesses can turn your innards inside out—or heal you." Anki snorted. "Not that that happens very often."

  "Some Oners make things. Magical things. Very expensive." Icku shrugged. "Not that everything isn't expensive. I could make some things, back when I was sober."

  Onni sniffed. "The One can do certain things more quickly and more cheaply with magic, than with machinery. Especially the miniaturized circuitry in computers. Oners make a bundle controlling the processes. I hear they just sit there painting their fingernails while the circuits keep popping out of the vat perfect and ready to go."

  "They own almost everything worth owning. And they hold themselves better than anyone else." Anki frowned, angry at something in his past. Or perhaps angry at himself. By his phraseology, he seemed to exclude himself from them.

  "And they
can't be hurt, they have these magic shields." Icku looked over at Kail. "Like that force field of yours, except they don't need any equipment." He blinked and frowned a bit, no doubt trying to remember what she had had in her hands.

  Este felt the faint spell waft over the room, and suddenly he remembered the remote control-looking thing Kail had held.

  Icku nodded happily.

  "So t'Natives don't have magic, but t'Oners do?" Este wondered how far he could push the former drunks. He didn't want them running off to the police . . .

  "Yep. That's why the Oners are always on top. No matter which world they live on. We have eleven worlds, you know." Icku said. "Usta be twelve, but the Earth stole one of 'em. Ought to kill all the bastards."

  The Earth. Great, a cross-dimensional war. Well, we knew they were rivals, and fighting over who got to try to capture our world. I wonder how long it's been going on.

  Deep didn't look happy. "You have eleven worlds? Umm, does your King rule all eleven worlds?"

  "King!" Anki sputter indignantly. "We have a president, and we can get rid of him any time we want to."

  Este scratched his head. "Democracy, eh? I guess you Oners must be the majority."

  Three head shook in unison.

  "We're the best, not the biggest." Icku frowned. "I hadn't actually thought about it that way. The Multitude votes . . . but it seems like the only candidates are always Oners . . . "