Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy (32 page)

Franc spotted movement behind the house. Figures in black charging down the hill toward the courtyard. He lost sight of them as they got down lower.

Franc watched the kids running across the pasture, the servants herding them. The youngest witches were between them and the house. The oldest, Teri, Jade, Smokey, Sunset, Dawn and Frost were striding away until the mounted troops appeared. Then they formed up their triads and waited. The riders were glowing, just five of them, mages and witches.

The front door burst open. The first fireballs flew. Too much of it was out of sight, and the rising sounds told him nothing. The wizards piled out. Good and bad wizards together.

Rior stepping out of the door, throwing painfully bright flashes of power.

It was too dark and chaotic to tell from his distance, but he saw at least one witch crumple. The mares in the pasture were panicked, a thousand pounds of stupid ready to run over anything smaller in their path.

Bender got around the scrum and bolted for the pasture. A rider was hot on his tail and Bender threw spells that staggered the horse. The trooper vaulted off and ran at Bender, who stopped just past Franc and swung his sword. The Westerner parried high and snapped the sword across Bender's neck. Franc uncoiled, his blade sliding in under the guard's ribs and up into the heart. He gave it a vicious twist, then jerked the sword out and spun to face another rider. Ha! A woman. He threw the orgasm spell, and watched her absorb it with no more than a gasp as a slice tore at his own shields and then a fire ball, his body spasmed as something got through then a sword was descending . . .

Cursing from the Oners in the background, cut off abruptly as Tat jumped through the gate and sprinted through the second corridor. The Oners were right on his heels. As planned, one team veered left for the kitchen door, and the stairs up to the bedrooms of that wing.
Less chance they'll catch anyone there, now.
The other Teams would be going in the large patio doors after him.

Fireballs shot out the door, out a window to his right . . .

"No, damn it. Form up or we don't have a hope in . . . "

Eldon's voice.
Damn it, both the strongest and the one I know best and like. Used to like.

Xen sliced to the right, shattering stone and window frame. Dropped his stirrups and used the horse's momentum to throw himself at the doors. Shield up, he rolled through the door low down. Movement in the dark, he threw the net of the goat spell at it. Twisted away from a half-seen blow and stabbed. Threw a fireball just to light everything up . . . Witch down to the left, young women and children running down a staircase and out the door at the far side of the huge room . . . A half changed goat trying to hold a broad shield between the fleeing children and Xen.

Men running toward him. Xen threw a slice. It shattered on shields, crackled away with explosions of damaged furniture. Dozen of little flash fires. Windows exploded inward as the Action teams joined the fight. Spells flew, bright in his mind, all individual, neither gang nor team taking the time to join up. Smoke burned his eyes, not thick enough to hide anything. Xen charged at the concentration of women, throwing stun spells as they raced through the door. The goat's nerve broke and he bolted after them, but still managing to hold wide shields. Xen's first fireball was absorbed, slice bounced, stun . . . then they were out the door, and Easterly's problem.

The Oners had half the wizards down, along with half the Oners. The other wizards had fled through various doors. The Oners on their feet split both directions to search, two were on Xen's heels as he raced up the stairs. A woman at the head of the stairs, glowing with magic, throwing a spell. A laser beam flicked through the smoky air. The witch collapsed, the spell hit the wall in a shower of dust. Xen cut left, threw a hard stun at movement. A witch collapsed.
Gods! Practically a baby. With a baby! Dammit all!
The rest of the wing was clear. He took a narrow flight stairs to the top floor. Deserted. Bubbles here and there. He ran down the hall.

Deflected a laser beam. "Xen!" he yelled. "Wing's empty!"

The Oner grinned. "Always wanted to do that. The house is secure."

"So what are we doing still inside?" Xen ran for the stairs.

Rael spotted women and children fleeing across a pasture. Other women, glowing with power, facing them. Six women standing in two close groups. Throwing spells.

The first push almost unseated her. Pyrite swerved to get under her without slowing a bit.

Rael heard a curse from Deena as she aimed her horse bodily at them. The horse threw on the brakes, hit a shield . . .

:: Triads. Very strong. :: The horse's voice echoed in her mind.

Rael felt the vibration, the frequency of the shield, matched it and threw a slice. One trio collapsed, only one woman screaming . . .

She turned to the next trio, but they were retreating, dodging panicked horses racing around the pasture, a dozen mindless menaces . . .

Pyrite grunted, his shields flaring high and hard. Laser and magic.

A man on the steps of the mansion . . . tall black haired. Familiar magic . . . with a twist of strange.
Damn, that really is a sex change spell, because that's not a Princess, anymore.

Easterly and Yellow were after the trio of witches, Dominic and Deena were past them and heading seaward after the main crowd. A confused scrum of witches, wizards and Oners—the Teamers must have realized the mansion was nearly empty. Charging horses from the far side—something had delayed Garit.

Rael looked back at Rior.
They probably can't even see her.

:: So? :: Pyrite charged, all three shields up.

Rael gathered power. Saw the man's head jerk around, recognition of another princess.

And suddenly the horse's mind reached out to hers and as Rael threw a fireball his energy shield opened a hole. Slice, through the opening of the physical shield.

The man threw fireballs back, trying to saturate the shield, briefly blinding them both.

Rael blinked, moving with the horse as he turned, galloping after the fleeing Oner, staggering as he hit a low shield. Leaping over it. Twisting to avoid a broadside crash with a loose horse.

Dammit, they're getting away!

Easterly and Yellow were throwing spells against a shield, the last of the gang holding it as they ran through a gate in the fence and cut left . . . was that a goat? Holding a shield?

:: Yes. Morphed. Good idea. :: Pyrite looked left and a running figure collapsed with a yell. Back to the right, another flash of power and the trio of women broke as one fell. The other two fled, more people running in, spells flying.

Rael gathered power . . .

:: No. Friends. ::

She threw the power at Rior instead. He shrugged it off, vaulted across the fence and bolted after the wizards.

He's getting away!
Rael grabbed mane as she felt the horse's intention. He cleared the fence with a powerful leap and wound through bush, a path, charged a bright circle of daylight the wizards were backing through . . . swirling down as the goat leaped through last and it was gone.

Mantigo kept snugged down with the sniper rifle.

"It's total chaos down there, and everyone moving too fast." Chang was using the special optics.

Mantigo grunted. "And friendlies all over the background."

"Track right. Three women coming around the house toward us." Chang's voice trailed off a bit. "Foe. Veering toward the SWAT team . . . are they after guns?"

Mantigo focused down on one as she leaned over the motionless body . . . knife in hand . . . he squeezed the trigger.

"One down."

His second shot knocked a woman flat, but she rolled to her feet, unbloodied. "Magic shield. Damn."

"Hold your fire, friendly coming in from the side." Chang paused.

In his scope Mantigo watched a fireball exchange and suddenly the women collapsed in a bloody ruin. He shifted, spotted the third woman limp on the ground.

"No targets."

Xen and the last Oners were late to the party in the pasture. He ran past limp figures, slowed as Pyrite reported the last of the wizards gone, the gate closed. He veered to where Yellow lay limp and Peter was bent over Easterly.

"I've got them, those women dodged back around the house to the left though. Watch the knives, they're poisoned, and don't trust that they're out if they fall and lie still."

Xen raced around the north side, a Teamer on his heels.

"There were some women throwing spells out the back windows. They knocked down the FBI guys, then they ran. The two on the staircase, that we took out."

Xen lowered his mental shields enough to contact the observers . . . nothing from Fuchsia. The Oner reported the SWAT teams safe.

He sounded a bit breathless.

:: You were supposed to stay out of this. :: Xen slowed as he spotted the bodies on the lawn.

:: They hit the non-magicians with spells until they finally got through, then these three decided to cut a few throats on their way to the uphill gates. ::

Bodies in dull black armor lay scattered about. A tall thin man in camouflage stood wearily in the midst of them. Hands empty, three women bleeding on the ground, knives fallen from limp hands.

"Ah, two of the Auralian assassins, and a witch. Good. Umm, good job."
He took out a witch? By himself? Damn.

The man nodded. "Your sniper got one, I took out the other two. One of them is still alive." He listened. "It sounds like the fighting's over."

Pyrite, sounding irritated. :: The herd leaders got away. ::

"Damn."

"Twelve captured, ten killed. Ten or fifteen escapees, depending one how you count the teenagers." Garit looked down at Dominic's covered body. "Damn it all. And Mirk, Fidel, Rior and Jade all got away. Or weren't there in the first place."

"Rior was there. Got away, dammit."

Garit made a note. "You were right about us needing more magicians, Xen. The ordinary troops weren't even road bumps."

"I didn't think they'd be that fast and prepared." Xen glanced over at Fuchsia. "I didn't think they could take a witch. I didn't think they could
see
you."

"Old Gods." She looked ill. "I felt something at a low frequency and started to look. Next thing I know it's three hours later and the battle's over."

Inso nodded. He'd refused the wine, and was taped and bandaged. "I've been in magical battles before, but nothing like that. Those witches were holding three shields and hitting through the gaps. Real pros, and there were six of them! The men had some absolutely visceral spells. Way off what I expected and shielded for. Distracting as hell in the middle of a battle. My guns were useless."

Jiol walked back in, looking much more like herself. "Inso, did any of the cams get a picture of me?"

"Do you hope so or hope not? I thought you looked a charming frog."

She glared. "I'm not sure. I don't think the boss will believe without pictures."

"I don't think he'll believe with pictures." Inso looked over at Deena. "Got to say I was impressed by the combination of spells and sword work you used to take that fellow down. I'm going to have to take lessons in sword fighting."

She nodded. "I expect that we'll work out mixing lasers or bullets with magic eventually. The thing about swords is that they're slow enough to put a shield piercing spell on as you swing or thrust. I wish I'd been a bit faster, or Dominic a bit slower, though."

Q stalked in, looking irritated. "We couldn't take the gates down fast enough. There weren't enough cones within easy reach to bump loose seven gates in quick order. They got out through the three gates that were below the pastures. Two of those are new since yesterday. They didn't even try for the higher ones. I've closed all the gates. I know where they went and I'll see if they open gates to get further away. Whether I'll be fast enough to stop them, I don't know."

"And then there's the question of finding them on those Worlds." Chris Hanger, the Bogota Nuke Cop, shifted his ice bag to the other side of his head. Xen said it was just a simple stun spell by a very powerful magic user in a hurry. The swat team had recovered and were sitting around the patio with ice bags in hand. Q had turned on the outside lights, and the pleasant evening was . . . mostly not being enjoyed.

Garit walked out to the center of the patio and captured everyone's attention. "This is the first time we've attacked through a gate. We've found all the things we've done wrong, but we've also captured or killed roughly two thirds of the adult members of the gang. The leaders got away, and a few more gang members, but the majority that escaped appeared to be teenagers and children. We'll be reviewing all the recordings, and I'm sure we'll all be coming up with what we have to change the next time we do this.

"Now. Agent Albrecht has returned to check with her FBI superiors. They may want to take over the scene and especially look over any jewelry here. With that in mind we need to move out without disturbing things worse than they already are. They will probably take the prisoners off our hands as quickly as we figure out some extradition requirements. Xen has removed their ability to make magic, so they can be securely constrained by non-magic users."

Those recovering from stunning—and few other spells—reluctantly abandoned their seats to follow the rest of them up the hill. Lon, Julianne, Karl and Xian were moving the almost-walking wounded back through Q's gate to Embassy.

As Garit had expected, the FBI wanted the scene. "Fuchsia? Are you well enough to go with them and check for bubbles? Open them, carefully. Any children . . . bubble them back up and bring them to Embassy. The rest the FBI can deal with."

"Right." She turned to the newly arrived batch of . . . what had they called them? Forensics and scene analysis experts or something like that.

Garit left it to them and went to check up on the rest of his troops.
My charge down the hill was barely useful. They set a trap . . . probably when they spotted Fuchsia . . . even Pyrite says he nearly tripped over a low shield. So the observers will have to be much further back. Mantigo didn't fire a shot, too confused down below, he said. I must think about whether that sort of thing is useful, in these circumstances.

Some of the women, the non magical Auralian whores, had had poisoned weapons. Easterly looked awful, and Yellow not much better. Inso had killed the woman, while Peter dumped wine down Easterly's throat. Yellow had used a spell to counteract her poisoning, and jumped right back into the fight in time to catch a stun spell from the goat.

He'd tasked Xen with clearing the house. Possibly he should have turned him loose to attack at will.

Maybe he should have recruited some more magicians. But damn it, at better than three to one . . . which had instantly turned into nearly even odds with his troops ambushed and the SWAT team down. The poor fellows felt they'd failed. Somehow Magic Central and his troops on smart horses, with forty men to deal with escapees, and twenty-four Action Teamers to back up Xen for the house fight had sounded reasonable. Xen and Q had both warned him that all the anti-spell charms were single spell only, and the opposition would get around to using unusual spells quickly.

Next best thing to instantly, as far as I could see.

Uncle Rufi always said the commander had more internal recriminations than anyone else. How true.

"Don't look so grim, Q. If you'd closed the gates, or if they'd stood and fought we'd have been in deep shit. Half of the witches were evacuating the kids, or we'd have been in trouble anyway. Even with the wine flowing freely, I can't believe we had just a single fatality. Next time I'll not be shy about asking your father for help."

Inso snorted. "After they hear about this, half the One in the military are going to want in on the next action. Three full teams. Twenty-four men. Seven serious burns, six stunned, four spinning around in little circles, three frogs, and the rest shocked by how close some slices came to getting through their shields. Oh, and all of them chugging boosters and moaning about their nearly- drained headaches. All done by six wizards, and the Teamers only took out three of them. They're going to be training like you wouldn't believe."

Q nodded, reluctantly. "I shouldn't have bothered with the gates once it went to pot. I should have helped fight."

"It was over before you could have gotten down here." Garit pointed out. "You might try, next time, to see if you can tell which gates are being used. If you could, you could prioritize which gates to take down first. Although they kind of went through in clumps."

Q nodded. "That I can already do. That's when I switched to the downhill gates. But I'd used up the easily available cones and had to hunt for ones to close the other two, and by then they were all gone."

Garit shrugged. "I'd have liked to have gotten this Rior and Jade. But we got ten of the original assassin gang and Thomu Iron is dead." He stepped out of the way of a pair of soldiers with a pallet, and watched silently as they carried Lieutenant Lord Dominic March away. "Dammit."