Wine of the Gods 05: Spy Wars (25 page)

"The horse is a goner." The big man was wearing a butcher's apron. "Four crown."

Damien looked at the sharp ends of bone and nodded. He stripped the poor fellow of the harness and the knacker drew a sharp razor across the big veins of the horse's neck.

By the time he gotten the wagon out of the ditch, and bought a cheap handy old nag to pull it home, the excitement was over. Andrai was crying, but more angry than grieved. Tony was propped up and looking pale on the couch. Various neighbors came by to give condolences, express their shock and try to pick up gossip. A City guard came by to say they'd lost the
four that had fled. "The troopers said that cart horse of yours outran them, even carrying double. Apparently led them over half the Province to hear them tell it."

A pale Vani slipped out and looked worriedly at the spindly underfed gelding.

"They ditched the wagon. New Boy broke a leg. They rode off on Solstice."

"Code's going to be awfully upset. Maybe they'll turn him loose somewhere."

Damien nodded. "Yeah. I like him myself, but I'd rather lose him than another person. Tony looks much better than he has any right to. Thank you." He looked at his new horse. "Well, I'll feed this old fellow up and get a bit of muscle on those bones before I sell him. I wonder if we could wean a couple of foals early, they're three months old. Then we could bring back two of the mares. It's not like I don't have enough horses already."

They had a quiet funeral in the morning. Max rode the old gelding to the farm to fetch
Sombrero and Frosty. Damien kept busy, hauling with the bays in the morning, and Blue and Brownie in the afternoon.

Andrai was angry. "We need to consider ourselves outed. Hunker down until the boat comes back and leave. Another team is going to have to take over from scratch."

Damien thought about it. "Are we? The Oners attacked us in public, not at home. I think it may have been like with Joe. They spotted us, set up a quick attack, then faded. We don't have any indication that they've tracked us home."

"They recognized some of you. But now they know all of you. I'll send a report on the boat when it comes next, and ship at least Carl and Tony off."

Tony nodded glumly. "They set the attack up where we'd been working for a couple of hours. They must have spotted us."

"And I'm tired of this. My feet ache. I want fast cars and to never see another horse again in my life. Or at least for several years." Carl grimaced. "Maybe I can get a home posting. Or at least at the Gate Camp, so I can
go home occasionally."

7 Emre 1367 / early spring 1365 local

Karista, Kingdom of the West, Target Forty-two

Karista looked like home as they sailed into the bay.

No one met them, and they carried their own gear and some boxes for Usse to the warehouse. Usse looked steamed.

He relieved Ajha of one of his boxes and hauled it upstairs.

"Al
l the . . . Pure Chance Damned Action Team does is prowl the city hoping to find an Earther to kill. I swear I'll never call you lot helpless puppies again." He placed the box on the counter and took the rest of his, then waved them away. "Ajha, why don't you go buy some obvious animal meat, and cook it for dinner. The Action Team doesn't seem to realize they aren't playing training games back home. They can't seem to think long term, once they spot an Earther."

He dawdled in the market, buying big red steaks with bones in them, potatoes to roast, three varieties of dairy products to season them with, fresh vegetables and a couple of blackberry pies. Nothing like a few seeds in the teeth to destroy an indolent bit of lounging. The he hustled back to the warehouse as the clouds darkened.

Four members of the Action Team had returned, and were head down over maps of the city. They had large blocks crossed off, and a scattering of green stars all over.

"Stars for Earther sightings, red exes for blocks they've scanned in detail." Egto muttered. "So far they haven't gotten close enough to kill another one—or get killed." He dropped his voice on that last. Ahja blinked. Surely the missing four weren't dead.

We've been gone a bit over a year. Edmo and Ohge were wounded. . . and four killed since then?

Ajha watched quietly as Usse paced. The room was insulated, so he couldn't hear the torrential rain hitting the roof, but the building quivered with every clap of thunder. It was nice to be back in Karista, but he was really glad they'd managed to miss the winter. This spring storm would be over quickly enough.

Idre was scanning the reports on comm intercepts that had finally trickled down to their level, nearly a year out of date. "I can't believe the Earth never retaliated for our raid. They won't let a pack of natives dictate to them. They must have had a problem with airlift, can't get enough stuff across the pole for a further push. We need to watch for them to move in some large ocean transports."

Edmo snorted. "Things like that have to come through in pieces and be assembled. We'll have plenty of warning." The other
two Action Team members in sight all nodded.

Usse nodded too. "Indeed. Our expectations of their actions are pushing our own schedule. We need to advance to the next level of cooperation on this World. The One wants that Priest to represent the One to the Amma, right now. Edmo, you will return to Fascia, and probably Home, to repair your team. Four members of the
Action Team dead in two brief fights?" Usse voice became censorious at that last. Ajha was glad he'd missed most of it. "The Infos and I will keep an eye on the situation here while you are gone."

What was left of the
Action Team shifted guiltily. Leader Edmo stood and paced. "The Princess isn't going to like the Priest taking over. She'll be cut right out of the chain of command."

"Yes, apparently the Amma is tiring of her. I expect she'll be recalled as soon as the Priest's relationship with the Amma is secure. So go, assist the transition. Tell the Priest that I am keeping the Information Team to do some more scouting. There must be a concentration of magic users close to the site of the battle. We should eliminate them before we move in and take Verona. I wish we could assimilate the Kingdom of the West, first, but the strategists are running the show." Usse stalked up and back and the Action Leader ceded him the floor space.

"It is absolutely crucial that the Earth not gain any magical resources, even this false magic they have here. Perhaps especially this local magic. It seems well suited to brute force violence. They sliced up the Earth's expeditionary force as easily as they sliced up Ojda and Endo." Usse looked down his nose at the Action Leader. "And now this. An attack in broad daylight? With disastrous results for us. Just as well you're leaving for a while."

The Action Lead
er smoldered, but didn't reply.

Ajha jumped in with a diversion.

"Their radio traffic shows that, not much to my surprise, the Earther's are still enmeshed in their politics. They're starting another election cycle, and their economy is more important than a mere raid by natives. They haven't even admitted to the deaths of the two female guards in Asia. The ruling party especially doesn't want word getting out about a clash with the One. We need to use this time to find and remove the native Magic."

Usse nodded. "Yes, an excellent suggestion. Edmo, get your team down to the boat under the cover of all this rain
, so no dock workers recognize you. If we can finally pin down the magicians' location, I will contact Fascia. Otherwise, we will be silent until all the fuss has died down."

"Before you leave . . . " Ajha gulped and dived in. "There's an oddity that I think Intel would like to get their hands on. It appears to be a bronze statue. I believe it may be a deranged magician under some odd collection of spells. Will you take it to this Priest?"

Idre glowered. "Not that statue of Ba'al you swore came to life. It was a hallucination."

"Possibly. But they can't fool a Priest."

Usse frowned. "Where is it? On that island with the rest?"

"Yes, sir."

"Edmo, as the ship leaves port, take a small boat to the island. Collect the statue and take it with you. Ajha, go with him, stay on the island, and pay your way off on a tourist boat tomorrow."

The Leader saluted and left.

Usse pulled out the sat map, and tapped it to regain the Information Team's attention. "Ignore them. Or use them as an example of how telepathic connections can act as positive feedback and overwhelm common sense.

"My native
asset—if you can call him that—is convinced that there are witches in this village. So, once the weather has cleared, I want you to examine the village in greater detail, then spread out from there." He gave them a toothy smile. "Don't give yourselves away to the God of War, else I'll get a bad reputation for losing personnel."

Ajha collected his coat, and stuffed food in the pockets and met the
Action Team with their full kit in the entry. Edmo scowled and led the way through the rain to the ship. The captain cast off immediately, as the tide was still ebbing. Two sailors rowed Ajha and Edmo to the island, and despite the rain and the dozens of statues, Ajha had no trouble following his terror to the statue now sitting in a cross legged meditative pose, but with his head turned and the beginnings of a frown on his face.

Edmo jerked back from his first contact with the statue. "I see. How . . . interesting." They muscled the statue onto a stretcher and lifted it, with considerable effort and got it around the island to the dingy. The sailors eyed the statue and rowed it and Edmo silently back into the rain and the barely visible ship standing off shore.

Ajha spend a cold, miserable night on the island, but the next morning was sunny. The first tour boat out was delighted to charge him a full fee to return him to the Mainland.

"Ought to find yourself some new friends, leaving you like that." The boat's captain was a gruff old man.

"Oh, I expect they thought it a great jape." Ajha sneezed.

"Dear me, and summer colds are the worst kind!" One of the tourists was a nice middle aged lady.

"Good thing I like chicken soup." Ajha stifled another sneeze as long as he could.

"Works like magic," the lady approved.

1365
Early Spring

Ash
, Kingdom of the West

Rustle had been delighted when Answer gave her permission to actually work on rabbits. She thought they looked cute purple, but Havi called them "Gurrrlieeee!" Daddy had thought it was funny.

Rustle soaked her hurt feelings in the hot springs for a few hours, analyzing the whole problem. All right. She really hadn't thought about the ramifications. She'd just thought purple rabbits would be cute.

However.

Scientists should not do cute. From now on she was going to be a cool, sensible scientist. She would present Answer with finished, complete results, all written up properly. No more cute little girl things.

After
she was done with the purple bunnies. No amount of male criticism was going to have her
quitting
in the middle of a project.

When she heard voices, she slipped out of the pool and grabbed her clothes. She wasn't in the mood for company, and in fact that sounded like a man's voice. Great. Some randy mages probably, who wouldn't admit that this was the witches hot springs . . . Oops, she'd just foully maligned the mages.

It was Opinion, with a . . . with that merchant. Wow. Everyone figured Lord Kell was Opinion's pet. They must have had a heck of a fight, for Opinion to make a production of hauling a new man up to the hot springs.

". . . just a little trinket, of course. Barely worthy of a lovely lady like you."

Ooo, total smarm. This could be funny.

"Of course it's lucky I had a colored stone put in it, rumor has it that you witches have a diamond mine. So I suppose you've plenty of clear stones."

Opinion batted her eyelashes. "There's not a woman in the World that isn't thrilled by a gift." She wiggled up against the fellow and started unbuttoning his fancy coat.

"But we poor hopeful men wish to impress." He leaned to kissed her, and Rustle could see that he was doing it with his mouth open and sticking his tongue in.

Eww!

His hands were unbuckling her belt and she was rubbing his crotch through his clothes.

Double eww! Time to leave.

After all, even Opinion would have sense enough to not talk about the diamonds.

Rustle slipped away between trees, like stalking a deer. It was fun in the moonlight. Could she be so silent she didn't even have to use a spell? She pulled in all her magic, and pretended to be a mountain lion stalking her prey. Uncle Lefty and Aunt Question had showed her how and she tried to emulate their movements. It was still cold, snow lingered on the north side of every tree. But the deer weren't yarded any more. She slipped from shadow to shadow, and counted twelve deer before she found more worthy prey.

The Auld Wulf, Harry, Nil and Daddy.

She heard their voices first, and pulled her magic in tighter, as she slipped into the vineyard and eased silently downhill.

They were sitting on the front porch, talking.

Talking about the merchant, in fact.

"Sooner or later word of the diamonds will get out." The Auld Wulf said. "Then it'll just be a matter of keeping the mob out. Legally there aren't any problems."

"Yeah," Harry drawled, "but the longer before we have to worry about a diamond rush, the better. And this Discol fellow. I don't like the stink of him."

The Sheep Man shrugged. "Who's going to talk to him? No one here, so these little fishing expeditions of his are pointless. And we can take care of him if some mage talks."

Rustle bit her lip to hear an adult blaming the mages too.

Harry and the Auld Wulf gave him a sharp look.

"Let's not fall too low, eh?" Harry suggested.

Nil shrugged and Dad didn't move at all.

The silence was so comfortable, Rustle nearly fell asleep. Eventually they started discussing politics and the price of wool, and why the Sheep Man's sheep were infertile. That perked her up. They chatted about 'early experiments' and hybrids and such. Then they veered off into the weather and comets.

::Rustle, bed time. ::

::Yes Mom. I'm at the vineyard, I'll be home in a hour or so. ::

::Rustle! Your Father doesn't seem to know you're there. ::

She sent back a smug grin. ::I snuck in. Even the Auld Wulf didn't notice me. :: "Oops."

"Little Rustle." The Auld Wulf's sword disappeared. "You are nearly as good at sneaking consciously as you used to be subconsciously."

"Thank you." She stood up, hesitated. "Umm, Opinion took that merchant fellow up to the hot springs. He was sort of wiggling around trying to get her to talk about diamonds without flat-out asking any questions."

"What did she say?" Nil was right behind the Auld Wulf.

"I don't know, I left when it started getting disgusting."

"I think I'm glad my daughter has some scruples." Dydit rubbed his forehead. "And no interest in sex. I'm definitely glad about that. Come along, before we both get into trouble with your mother."

As she followed him out, she noticed that only Harry was coming after them. Were the Auld Wulf and the Sheep Man going to go spy on Opinion? Wow. If the witches ever found out men were watching, there'd be trouble.

And where had He put that sword? Was that one of the ways he used those bubbles? She eyed the nearest, and reached out carefully. It bobbed away from her touch. "Well, at least it didn't ignore me, like they used to."

Her dad looked away and didn't say anything.