Wine of the Gods 03: The Black Goats (35 page)

"Umm. Naked ma
n." She sat up. "Oh that's better. Much much, umm, have I ever mentioned that you have a really nice jaw line?" She leaned over and kissed it, just to be sure he understood.

"Urk. Umm, No, Never, you've never told me that . . . eep. Never, I really don't want you to kill me in the morning, really. Truly. Keep, keep your hands off, Never, don't umm."

"And shoulders. How'd you get such wide shoulders when you, umm . . . "

She wound up chasing him, and getting lost in the desert, and by the time she caught him, she was full of power, sober, and ready to kill . . . something.

"I mean, I really appreciate having this cure-anything elixir around. Really." She slid down beside him. "I might not even mind the aphrodisiac. But fertility? This powerful a fertility spell? Honestly. Make you choose between dying and having another baby? Umm, not nice."

Dydit cautiously lifted his head, lowered the arms he had wrapped protectively around it. "Really?"

"How'd I catch you? I can't outrun even an ordinary goat."

"Umm, if I'd let the goat out again, I don't think I'd have been running
away
. The goat is me at my absolute worst."

She thought about the goat that hadn't done anything really objectionable. "Your worst doesn't seem to be that bad. Thank you for rescuing me, and bringing the wine and . . . being a much nicer goat than I'd expected."

"Well, I did rape your intended."

"Oh." She thought about it for a moment. "Thank you for that as well, although he probably enjoyed it."

"Umm, I don't suppose you'd loan me part of that very fetching ensemble, would you?"

He looked pretty good in
tight black silk pantaloons.

The wagons were at the country house when they got there.

Lefty and Fair stopped waving their arms and yelling at each other when Dydit and Never limped into sight. Lalli leaped from the wagon and ran to hug Never. "Are you all right? What happened? This huge goat . . . Dydit . . . grabbed the wine bottle and ran off. Romeau said we should follow and started the most ghastly poem about love lying dying."

"Actually my worst problem was not letting them know they'd kidnapped the wrong blonde." Never told her, sitting down on the steps and looking at her bleeding soles. "They thought they had the Princess Lalligah, and were going to marry her to the son of the Amma. I suppose to give Auralia a claim to the throne of Verona."

Dydit crawled into his wagon and emerged a few moments later dressed like a more human version of Romeau, sans hat and plumes. Limping.

"I can't believe I ran barefoot over so much desert." He sank down beside her.

"We found the wine bottle, there's still some left." Romeau's grin widened at their mutual vehement negatives.

"Which force will be stronger?

The Fear or the Love?

Such odd forms doth True Love Take."

Fortunately that was as far as he went, so neither of them had to kill him. "We doped a bottle in the house and gave some to all the people Dydit beat up, even the Solti, and sent them away.

Feeling just a little ashamed of herself, Never limped up to her room and packed all of the gorgeous silks and embroidered long vests and tunics. She chose the green ensemble that would perfectly compliment Lalli's coloring, and handed it to her friend. "Trust me, the little pervert wasn't worth
any
amount of clothing, but his staff had excellent tastes."

Lalli ohed over it, then shot a look at Never. "Fair and I've been talking."

The man nodded. "We won't be safe, here. We might stir up a war between Verona and Western
or
Verona and Auralia, right when Scoone is threatening to attack. We're properly and legally married, now, and we're pretty sure we're expecting. So we're going home to face the music."

Dydit clapped him on the shoulder. "Good man."

Sir Romeau waffled, but finally left with the young couple. "Must see True Love vindicated and accepted."

"Look us up afterwards." Never grinned. "I really do want to introduce you to the lady that made that wine."

Then she slipped back inside and packed up every single herb, spice and liquid in the place. The Elders were going to want to know about a substance that could render a witch incapable of touching power.

Lefty scratched his chin and opined that the King would probably want an eye witness ac
count of what happened in Cadent when the Princess returned, so he was going also. But he pulled Never and Dydit aside. "Before I leave, I want you two to promise you won't kill each other if I leave you alone."

Never giggled. "Al
l right, so long as I don't have to promise to not
hurt
him."

Dydit growled, and slapped Lefty's shoulder. "A
ll right. I won't kill her. And just to prove I'm a nice guy, I'll tell Question you're safe and sound."

Lefty perked up.

"
If
she asks."

Lefty tried to glare and wound up laughing. "I expect I'll see the pair of you in the spring."

They all left town the next day, early. Going their separate ways.

Dydit looked uncertainly at Never. "I know a great restaurant in Havwee. Inn. Lots of rooms. Plenty of people around to dilute proximity."

"Good idea."

It was two days to Havwee.

They camped beside the road in a cleared area that obviously saw much traffic. Two other traveling groups kept their distance.

"So." Dydit finished currying the team. Never had started dinner and brushed the mares. "Do you really think you'll do more mapping next summer?"

"I want to, but I have a one year old daughter I haven't seen for four months. I really should stick close to home." She blew out her breath. "Parenthood really messes up the work I want to do."

"You should do it my way. Fuck and run."

"I really should
not
have promised." She turned her attention back to the cooking.

He chuckled and munched the salty crispy meat and veggie filled whatevers she produced.

"If you're a real old Scoone wizard, you must know more about magic than we do. What causes it?" She leaned back comfortably against a grassy mound, eyes on the gleaming stars.

"Nothing 'causes' it. It's a natural part of everything. Some people just have the ability to mentally manipulate it, is all." He sat down cautiously, a bare foot away from her. He scooted back another half foot.

"What people? Why? It obviously runs in families, but occasionally you get a spontaneous witch from no known bloodlines. Catti and Zamm, for instance. Or Lefty. He's a wizard, isn't he?"

"Yes. Well, do you know what genes are? There's several hundred genes that influence what sorts of
magical things any given person can do. What specific talents they have. And then there are the three source genes. They enable the person to pull in power, so it can be used according to the rest of the genes that particular person has. There's one that enables touching the Earth power, one—actually there's a lot of argument, it could be as many as twelve variations of the gene—that enables touching Wind and Water. And one that enables drawing power from Fire."

"So how can all that just show up, spontaneously?"

Dydit shook his head. "Sometimes someone has the power sourcing gene, but few or even none of the other genes. So they can't do magic at all. If they marry someone who has a bunch of the other genes, but no sourcing gene, they might, just by random chance produce a child who can do magic. That's why mages—and wizards—are so inbred, they're trying to concentrate lots and lots of the various genes, so their children are
very
powerful mages or wizards."

"Witches, Mages and Wizards. So, why are witches
always
female, mages
always
male and wizards predominantly male?" She rolled up on her side and studied him now.

"Hmm, chromosomes? The strings of chemicals that contain the directions for everything every cell does?"

"Right, the collections of genes."

"They come in pairs, two of each. The ones that determine gender, there's an X type and a Y type. Women's pairs of sex chromosomes are both X types. A baby that gets an X and a Y is a male. So. The witc
h gene is a very strong dominent. It overrides whatever the equivalent gene is on the X inherited from the father. So a witch can seduce any man and her daughter, if she gets the witch X will be a witch, and if she gets her, umm, maternal grandfather's X she'll be just a regular person.

"The mage gene is on the Y chromosome. It's inherited from father to son and daughters never get it. But they have lots of those other hundreds of genes, so the mages like to strengthen their lines by not out breeding. Or by marrying those 'normal' witch daughters."

"And the wizard gene?"

"It's on the X chromosome, in fact
some say that it's a variation of the witch gene. But it's recessive, a witch gene, or even a normal gene will over ride it. Umm, the Y chromosome is, umm, little. It doesn't have any copies of that gene, of any sort. So a boy that gets the Wizard X will be a wizard. A girls has to inherit two copies of the gene. One from each parent. Far fewer girls are wizards. At least they don't have to . . . do anything to themselves."

"I don't under stand that castration business. You didn't actually . . . "

"Oh yes I did. There as last burst of brain growth between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two. Give or take a tendency to be either precocious or a late bloomer. Male hormones, right then, interfere with the development of the parts of the brain that involve wizardry." He shrugged. "So, if you want to be a powerful wizard, not just a dabbler—snip, snip. Everyone I knew did it. When you hit twenty-two or there about, you can feel how powerful you are. Strong enough to do regenerating spells, and grow a new pair."

"Riiight."

"Want to see what a good job I did?"

"No, Goat. I do not." S
he hesitated. "That goat spell—it's not a
real
goat."

"Oh no. It's much more complex than a simple transform to a natural creature. A transformation spell changes the amounts
and shapes of things that are made, thigh bone, skull, brain . . . It's incredibly hard to actually change things to something new and have it
work
. Nihility added things that don't occur in nature. A serious show of mastery."

Dydit gazed into her deep blue eyes and wondered if he could shield his mind, really, really hard . . .

"I noticed the horns. Sort of a triangle, with one sharp edge, twisted into a spiral. Impressive."

"And increased the size of, umm, some parts." How brave was he? How stupid?

"I noticed that too."

He leaned over and kissed her.

Never kissed him back. And snickered. "Just how bad are witches reputations in Scoone? It's much more fun if you let the power flow back and forth."

"Fun for you. What about the man?"

"A witch has to be careful, and that is hard the first time. After that we generally don't hurt men."

"Generally." He snorted, "How reassuring." How had he gotten so close and snuggled up? He could feel his body responding, and his shields melting.

"That's better. See, you just shift a little bit of power back and forth."

He felt the warm power flowing in and drank it up. Then it reversed its flow and he clutched at it as she took it all back. Poured it in and pulled it back again. He tried to relax, to push and pull the power with her. He was vaguely aware that he was holding her and kissing her, and rubbing himself against her. And that he needed to stop long enough to get these damn clothes out of the way . . .
What the hell am I doing?

He jerked back. "What the hell am I doing?" He rolled away. Scrambled to his feet and backed away and blinked at her. "That, that . . . I . . . Never, I, umm . . ." That had been . . . and he hadn't actually. He turned and walked away.

***

Never thumped her head on the ground. That had gotten completely out of hand. She'd just wanted to talk to him. Right. Lay back, and expect a man to not . . .  "Damn it, if I'm going to seduce him, I should at least be honest
with myself about it," she muttered. Dydit's mind had been
strong.
If he'd seriously fought her for the power, one of them could have been hurt.

When he walked back, in clean clothes, looking like he'd bathed in the stream, she studied him. In the dark his hair looked black, but in the sunlight it shone brown. Eyes that were bluish or greenish or greyish according to mood and what he was wearing, not at all goat honey brown. Tall, broad shouldered, tending a bit toward bulk. Tall broad forehead, straight nose. Good cheek bones and jaw. All in all a good looking man. But that wasn't quite the impression Never had ever gotten from him. She was too used to him scowling and running away. Following her like he didn't want to. Well, she had the answer to that now, didn't she? He knew witches took power, and hadn't expected to get any back.

She thought back, to Lieutenant Lord Bysom Trehem. Would the arrogant man who chased her up to the hot springs have given her permission to do what she had done to him? Not a chance.

On the most basic of terms, witches were rapists. Using men as objects, sometimes violently, taking only the faintest care to not harm them. Too badly. Guess she shouldn't feel too superior to the goat.

"Do you know what the difference between a goat and a witch is?"

"Two legs or four?"

"A witch makes her victims enjoy it."

"Oh, nasty! Introspection isn't very good for the ego. That's why I so seldom indulge." He sat back down at the embers of their fire and poked it a bit with a stick.

"Not a bad idea, but I think perhaps I've been doing a bit too little of it."

"If you're going to get morbid, I'll stop giving you rides and make you walk the rest of the way home."

***

She walked the next day, only finally swinging up to sit beside him as the wagon traffic picked up. They entered Havwee as the Sun set. There was a single token guard on the gate, and he spent all his time with his head craned to look inward as he waved people through with the briefest of glances.

"Is there a problem?" Never asked him.

Even her blonde beauty couldn't entirely distract the man from whatever the problem was. "It's that temple of Ba'al. They've been building the damn thing for two years, and now they want to consecrate it. By burning a baby."

Never hunched her shoulders. "I thought the King outlawed that."

"He did. This lot doesn't seem to care. They
say
the Black Beast was
here
two years ago, and this baby was its get. So they're going to burn it."

Dydit drove on, sobered. "I used to be really . . . I think it was the effect of being a very nasty goat for a
lmost a thousand years."

"
You
were here? Two years ago." Never raised an elegant brow.

"A bit less, early sp
ring instead of early winter." He frowned. Burn. A baby.
His
baby.

"I'm pretty good at invisible," Never mentioned. "And shields."

"But could you live to brag about it? I can do all that too. During the day, when I've got a source," Dydit scowled at the setting sun. "Can you cover me with an invisible spell?"

"If I'm close enough. Probably twenty feet, maximum
. An illusion would be even easier, make you look like someone else."

All the streets were clogged, closer to the north gate. Dydit turned down a side street, worked his way across until the wagon was in a quiet alley not too far away from the west gate, and facing it. He set the brake, and rummaged for the most dangerous weapon in all creation.

"You have another bottle! What are you going to do?"

"Depends on what the circumstances are." He frowned at Blaze and Bitch, thought about the injuries they might incur. He poured half the bottle into a water skin and looped it over his shoulder. "The other half is in case we're injured, or the horses need some sudden energy."

"I see."

They stood in the
dark alley a moment. Never faded to a translucent ghost. Dydit looked normal to himself, but presumably was as barely visible to Never's witch eyes, and completely invisible to others. Then Never suddenly changed, looking like a pimply teenager. Dydit still looked the same, to himself. "Dare I ask?"

"Too mean to cross.
This is easier than invisible,  and will work much better in a crowd. Hopefully we can get through the crowd. Then I'll add one of those tabards they wear. The closer we can get before we attract notice . . . "

He nodded and led the way.

Apart from the Temple near the North gate, Havwee hadn't changed much since he'd spent a week here, eating excellent food and prowling the streets. Raping a pair of Ba'alists.

They got close before the crowds got so thick they had to elbow their way through. Dydit whispered a bit of an avoidance spell, which helped enormously. The City Guard, backed by the local Army was between the
city crowd and the Temple grounds. The grounds were fenced with wrought iron, an ostentatious display of power and wealth. There were torches, but not nearly enough for the size of the grounds.

They made it up to the fence and could see the
other crowd, the Ba'alists, on the inside of the fence, facing off with the troops.

"Never? The fence metal, can you?"

She reached down and concentrated a moment, then reached up and wrapped her hand around the metal. The rod, loose at the bottom, bent up out of the way. They slipped through.

She was wearing a tabard now, and walked around the
church crowd to the temple side of the statue of Ba'al. The statue had a fire burning in its belly, and the metal glowed red hot on the outside.