Young Warriors (Wine of the Gods Book 10) Read online

  "Oh dear, umm, just how, umm, modern is your education?"

  He chuckled. "My history lessons suffered an upheaval halfway through. All of a sudden absurd things like parallel Worlds and gates and exiles from Earth started getting mentioned. And Xen says the Old Gods saw it all."

  Damien shrugged. "I've heard several versions."

  "The gods were an experiment in extreme magical ability who were used to open gates between parallel Worlds, and who then used the gates to escape. Among the other genetic experiments were both dogs and horses. The Hell Hounds are also fourteen hundred years old and altered somewhat from the norm. There were nine horses. Sun Gold, Pyrite and Jet. Have you seen the War God's horse? He's Phantom's sire. That old dun horse of Harry's. A palomino that Governor Jin took away from the God of Peace. We've got three 'on ice' so to speak. There's only one we haven't found."

  "So . . . why was Pyrite gelded?"

  "He was an experiment, they didn't want his odd genes being broadcast about. Sun Gold was gelded too, but the Wine fixed that. The six light horses were yearlings and had been gelded, the three heavy ones were foals when the God of War and Sir Romeau stole their two. The God of Art had four of the yearlings. We aren't sure how the rest of them got here."

  Garit snorted. "All right. You are so much like Xen it's scary, but that also means I can hear you not saying things when you talk about the Gods. What are you not saying?"

  She snickered. "Oh, I'm leaving out the 'my father' before the God of War." Her eyes crinkled. "And I see than Xen never mentioned that, either."

  "Umm, I guess I sort of knew that, I just hadn't actually thought about it. I mean, I met this really tall fellow, looks a lot like Xen, makes wine . . . "

  "Yep. I don't know why people are surprised that the Gods do things in between their being yanked halfway around the World to fight battles, or officiate at weddings."

  "Officiate . . . "

  "Yep. Your Colonel is very married. The God of Love put his personal seal of approval on it."

  "Is he hiding from this Answer person?"

  "Yep."

  Damien, who'd been listening in silence, snickered. "Just like normal people. Now that's boggling."

  Quicksilver was apparently at home in the odd farmhouse and produced sandwiches. They admired horses, caught Damien's pinto mare who'd decided to visit Phantom, then walked out and examined sheep and their fleeces. Damien was especially interested in Nil's vicious ram. Garit snickered. "My uncle tells stories about this place. According to him, that's actually a wolf. But he claimed it had been changed back."

  Nil caught that and looked around with a wicked grin. "The wolves rejected him. He came back and tried so hard to get along with the sheep that Rustle finally took pity and changed him back. It hasn't improved his disposition any, so I've noticed. I really ought to thank her for the loan and make her take him away."

  Damien rubbed his nose and said nothing. And helped catch this Phantom who'd decided to pay a return visit.

  "She's got five foals, and I've never yet bred her on purpose. Two of them, I haven't a clue where she found a stallion." He saddled the mare, Chaos by name, and rode back to town with Garit.

  "So, how long is your Colonel going to hide from the witches? Vani's married, but even mostly keeping quiet about it and living in Karista she still gets lectures from Answer."

  "I dunno. The fort isn't big enough for officers' families. He's going to be in a state, worried about Lady Azure whenever he leaves."

  "Isn't she one of Lord Hell's collection? She can leave if things get too uncomfortable. And no doubt one of her sisters will be happy to unlock the corridor to Karista for him. Weird things. They are starting to change freighting out of all recognition."

  "No kidding. Uncle Rufi's losing the battle to keep the Havwee Corridor for Military use."

  "The gold shippers, in other words. To prevent robberies. Opening the corridor for all goods would be a huge change. In fact, I haul freight in Karista, docks to final destination, usually. Right now the river's too low for barges from Havwee. If I could use the corridor, I could pick up there, instead of the docks. Cut costs, cut out the barges altogether . . . possibly not the best thing for the economy in the short term. But once everyone adjusted, it would be a major leap in trade. And corridors to the Gold Rush towns might even cut back the bandits."

  Garit nodded. "We started out cautious, thinking people wouldn't like the magic. But they've really taken to the few corridors we've opened. I think they're going to spread really fast, once we take the plunge." He looked cautiously around the village. Lots of women, everywhere. His uniform gathered frowns. "But I don't think today is a good day to talk to witches about building more corridors."

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Early Summer 1391

  Karista, Kingdom of the West

  Xen spent three days wrapped up as undetectably as he could, reconnoitering the House of Six Prostitutes. Three of the women were easy to fool. He was very careful about Hoon, avoiding her at first.

  There was absolutely no indication of dimensional awareness in any of them. He followed them in the morning when Hoon and Skori did their marketing. He placed a dimensional cube where it would catch her eye in the market and she saw nothing.

  Back at their house, he caught a large bubble and anchored it with multiple peepholes. He settled down comfortably inside, wondering why he hadn't thought of this earlier.

  Most likely because it was both boring, embarrassing and a pain in the rear to get in and out of. His doorway was at the back of a side wall where he could easily hop the fence and trot down the neighbor's carriageway to the back alley. He could warp light around himself to be sure he wasn't seen coming and going, but it was dangerous to be invisible in the city, and hard to find a place to disappear from and reappear in, unnoticed.

  The day before the carriage was due into town, Xen was back in the bubble with three other observers; Deena Janic, Wacolm and a Captain Gerard. They all pretended to take the magic in stride and to not mind walking on a brassy soft surface. Xen pretended to not notice their occasional flinch. He'd dragged in a few boards to keep the bubble shape steady, and made them carry in some more, but he didn't think they really thought it was enough.

  The women were entertaining that night, a local businessman was showing three visiting foreigners Karista hospitality, softening them up for his sales pitch. A fancy carriage and four in hand stood in the loop outside the front door, the driver asleep. Inside, the four regulars, with a musician and two serving girls provided good food, dancing and music, a minor orgy, dessert and coffee. A knock on the door came with dessert.

  Hoon slipped away, apparently the only person to hear the summons. The peephole into the entryway showed the shock on her face when she saw her visitors. The eight men from the gate had had Easterly drive late into the night to get them to the house a day sooner.

  "Hoon who Dances for The One. The One comes." It was almost Arbic, with 'The One' in clear English. It sounded very ritualistic. "I am Action Leader Esna Withione." And that sounded much more normal. English and Arbic combined.

  Xen realized he was picking up the meanings, and softened his shields as much as he dared. I'm not really in the World, but there's probably some leakage through these spyholes. He tried to listen up high, where their shields leaked a bit. Hoon's reply was clear.

  She bowed. "Esna who is With The One. I have here a safe house and a spy network. Please enter quietly, we have outsiders here. I was not aware you were coming. I will speak with you at length in an hour."

  Esna frowned. "Very well. Until you have briefed us I will not comment."

  She raised supercilious eyebrows and led the men to the upstairs parlor, with her adjoining suite, and left them there.

  Xen quickly made additional spy holes, shoving the bubble around to cover all four bedrooms. Gerard and Wacolm settled down to read over his shoulder as he took notes. Deena dropped back to watch Hoon.

  The newcom
ers disposed themselves comfortably and waited in silence. Xen checked the kids. All quiet in a magically enhanced sleep; the dining and orgy hall was quiet, with tonight's entertainment wrapping up, and the guests being ushered out the door.

  Their driver woke up, completely unaware of the other men who'd come while he snoozed.

  While the four saw their guests off in style, the two serving girls and the musician cleared the last dinnerware and started washing dishes. The others shoved the room back into order and yawned their way off to bed. By the end of Hoon's specified hour, everyone but Hoon and her new guests were in magically reinforced sleep.

  "If you had radioed, I would have had the house empty, so there was no chance of anyone seeing you."

  "The Director has ordered radio silence, so that the Earthers will not be warned of our presence. A science team is studying these permanent gates that you have brought to our attention. The government is in an uproar, after their report. We had no idea the Earth was so far ahead of us, technically." Esna scowled around the parlor. "A Dancer for The One is not a common prostitute."

  "Alone and without contacts, I needed income. Being a very uncommon prostitute has worked well. Now. The members of the Exploration Team I contacted while studying the anomalous gates were quite tight-mouthed. Can you tell me how the invasion of Earth fared?"

  "Poorly. We think we were betrayed by the Native troops we'd trained." Esna pressed his lips together. "You say you are the only agent. What has happened to the Princess of the One?"

  "She was tricked into an appearance of infidelity. The Amma gave her to a lesser Solti, and her staff was sold. I have had no contact with any of them since then."

  "You should have stayed with her."

  Hoon's brows lowered. "The situation occurred considerably before the planned attack on Earth. I refuse to believe it was not reported to that mash up of authorities we were reporting to on the Home world. You probably know more about what happened than I do."

  "Yes. We just don't know what triggered it."

  "Do not underestimate the local magic, it is nearly as strong as the One. One of their magicians infiltrated the harem under a very strong illusion. And got into a compromising position just as the Amma walked in. I was unable to stay with Princess Rior, nor find her after I worked my way out from under the spells their so-called God of Peace placed on me. Afterwards I worked toward what I believed were the goals of the One. Now. I daresay you traced my implants, once you were close enough. Did you also trace the Post Head?"

  "We traced your implants. You say the Post Head is still here? We will talk to him as well. The Director wants all the information you have about that strange gate. I gather the science team is baffled."

  Hoon nodded. “The Earth has established six experimental gates, that I know of. They don’t use them for much. In fact they may have perfected their technique and abandoned the experimental gates, here. We need to study them, and if possible, find out where the makers have gone. They need to be the primary target. We need to capture them and their equipment. At a minimum, get pictures and then destroy it."

  The leader of the Oner team nodded. “That gate we came through is a mere twelve hundred kilometers away from ours. This will be quite useful for us, if the government ever drops the political infighting and backstabbing long enough to fund a major military mobilization. At the moment we are minimizing our presence on the Empty World, so as to not alarm the Earth. And also because the Director is irritated that Directorate funds are being spent on what ought to be a Ministry of War undertaking."

  "Politics! What posturing idiots are in power, now?" Hoon sounded exasperated.

  "There is an even split between the War Party and the Isolationists. The President is head of the War Party. The Prime Councilor is an Isolationist. Enough of that. Tell me of your progress."

  Hoon's eyes flashed. "Progress? Without contact with the government, with our embassy abandoned and the Native ruler we had negotiated with missing, it was clear that the One's plan for this World had failed. This is not a progress report on what has gone before.

  "I have two self-assigned major works in progress. One is to gain avenues of influence into both the government and the military. The second is to explore the local magic system. It is not the One True Magic, but they are very clever in their use of it." She scowled a little. "I'm studying one of the men they call 'Old Gods.' I'm being cautious, as he is quite strong. My most useful experimental subject became a bit too ambitious and . . . died last year. Pity, such a good musician."

  "Native magic? What can they do that we cannot do better?" Urca paced the parlor impatiently.

  "Open gates." Hoon sat down and smiled sweetly at them, giving them time to think it over.

  "They can meld their false magic with machinery to open the gates?" Esna asked.

  "I have not witnessed the making of the gates. But I can think of no other reason for the Earth to make a series of gates here, unless this is the source of their ability to open those gates. I have examined them. I cannot duplicate what they have done. I can not even completely analyze it. I think they are using the energy of the inbetween to maintain the gates."

  "The inbetween is an interesting hypothesis. I accept that their false magic may need further study." Esna frowned. "However, you are now back in touch with the One, and subject to our commands."

  Hoon touched her temples. "I have always been in touch with The One. I am now back in touch with the government’s command structure. But until I receive specific orders from my superiors, I accept your authority through the Directorate."

  "That is a wise decision, Dancer. Now, we need to establish a base for action." He looked around the room, curling a lip.

  "What funding do you have?" Hoon asked. "Or will I be supporting the Action Division?"

  Esna glowered. "We've brought gold to exchange for local currency. We can get all we need, so long as we are discreet in coming and going through the gate."

  Hoon walked over to the desk and opened a book. "Let me give you an example of the cost of living here in Karista, so you can calculate how much you will need. We are paying off a loan to gain ownership of this house . . . "

  Two of the men bent over the book, the other six exchanged glances and slipped out of the room.

  Xen kept writing and Gerard, Deena and Wacolm prowled the bubble, keeping track of the loose men. Making notes. One of the strangers concentrated on the kitchen and laundry. One prowled out to the quarters over the stables, checking on the trio that slept out there. The other two checked the women, and stared disapprovingly at the five children in the two rooms at the end of the hall.

  They returned to the upstairs parlor and loomed until noticed.

  "Yes, Urca?"

  "Why are you keeping Native children?"

  "To control their fathers. Or the foolish Natives who think they are the children's fathers. Two of them are the offspring of masters of the false magic. The other three are the children of young nobles who will inherit a great deal of land, money, prestige and, most importantly, government positions, when their fathers die. The young nobles are currently in the Army, and I thus have an information pipeline into military movements as well. If the One wishes to gain control of the government, I have made a start. If they decide on a less subtle sort of control, I can brief them on the Kingdom's military ability."

  "And that folderol tonight?"

  "An information source in the business community, plus three foreign based importers. Possibly not very useful, but with enough thread I can spin a rope. If nothing else, they have money they unwittingly donate to The One every time they come here."

  Urca snorted. "However unsavory, you've done a good job, here."

  Esna looked around. "Thank you for your opinion, Close to One."

  "Yes, sir. We don't want to ruin it. Can you put us up, even temporarily, Dancer?"

  "Yes, but you won't like the accommodations. Come with me."

  She led them down to the kit
chen, and then further down a narrow staircase to the cellar. There was a locked door at the back. She opened it, and led them through.

  Xen cursed faintly, and poked out extensions of his bubble and opened spyholes, trying to follow them.

  "Welcome to the dungeon." Hoon said.

  Xen hastily stuck the open spyhole against the rough timber of the ceiling.

  "Charming." Esna's voice was dry.

  "Some of the customers pay a great deal extra to be allowed to play with these little toys. I am sure you can make yourself comfortable. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen, but do not be too obvious or let the hired help see you. It is tiresome to keep them from noticing things." Hoon handed him the key and walked out.

  Wacolm signaled Deena to stay, and wallowed back over the unstructured bubble to follow Hoon. She released the sleep spells on the household, and retired.

  Xen took Gerard and Wacolm out with him, and returned with half a dozen people to keep watch. All Arbic speakers, who swore they could take notes phonetically if they didn't understand. They all brought thin planks, along with food, water, and bedding. And a slop bucket.

  Xen copied his notes for their study, made sure they were set for spyholes, then headed for the office.

  He caught Janic still there.

  "I really hate this 'bubble' thing you've constructed."

  "Yes, sir. Umm, I thought I should point out one specific thing they said. It's also in the report. 'The government is in an uproar.' Apparently they think the gates were made by the Earth, and represent enough of an advantage to worry them. I don't know if that means they'll be more cautious in their approach or more frantic. I don't see how we could intimidate them, using the gates as an example of our superiority, but it is something we could try."

  Janic's lips thinned. "For my part, I wish the people who made the gates could figure out how to destroy them."

  "Yes, that would end this particular threat."

  Janic dismissed him, and he headed for the Tavern.

  You never knew when a traveler might turn up and need a horse taken care of.