Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods) (44 page)

"
Hope I'm wrong. The Amma's tight with that One World you people are throwing fits about." The Auld Wulf sighed. "What a cluster fuck."

"I think I'd better report this." Benri said.

"Of course. I'll take everyone back to Karista and Ash." The god looked at the soldiers. "I expect you'll want to stay here, or with the Science Camp. I'll see about food and so on."

The soldier nodded warily.

Opinion held out her hands, but Catti shook her head. "I'll stay and watch. In case they do something else."

The rest of them joined up and Karista formed around them. As usual a carriage
waited to take people from Ba'al's temple to the Royal Palace.

"Home, or here, Ladies?"

"Here," Opinion sighed. "We'd best report in as well."

"Rufi and the King will appreciate it." Lefty sighed. "I'll bet I wind up going to Fascia to find out if that is where Pax took the gate anchor."

Benri and the Auld Wulf both nodded.

"Come to Ash. I'll teleport you down there and back."

"Thanks. Otherwise the news will be stale, and probably too late to matter."

"I'll let everyone in Ash know what's going on, then feed the troops." The Auld Wulf said, and disappeared again.

"Does he ever get tired?" Benri asked.

"Oh yes, and then he sleeps for a year and wakes up younger than ever. Gods may claim they're just people, but most of us know better."

"Sleeps for a year?" Benri said.

"Rumor has it that the last time he did that, a witch slipped into his bed and seduced him. By the time he woke up he was a father and thought it was all a dream."

"You witches are pretty scary too."

***

The Auld Wulf walked back into Harry's and found a reception committee.

"In case that
person
thought he could take us." Answer nodded decisively.

"I think he wanted the g
ate anchor. If he can compel the Earthers to keep it working until the gate opens again, then go through and compel those people to keep the gate open, he can move troops through until someone realizes there is a problem and shuts down the power from outside Pax's area of influence."

"Wolf, they can't fight a modern army!" Harry protested.

"Depends on how much help they're getting from the One World, doesn't it? If Pax's been across, seen what Never and Question saw, will he think he can take it and hold it?"

"The
Earth's Gate Complex is over twenty miles from anything, and any larger cities are further. It is located in a very remote area." Never said.

Dydit nodded. "The soldiers refer to it as Nowhereistan."

Wolf snorted. "Actually, why would Pax or the Amma want the Earth? He may just hold it long enough to get all of his group through, then switch the gate to somewhere else, and leave."

Nil
gave a narrow smile. "Good thought. Sabotage the gate, and or wipe the memories of the people who know where they went. Very handy. Better let the King know something is going to happen in Auralia. Not that this is a good time to take advantage of it and start a war. I wonder how many people the Amma's taking with him?"

The Auld Wulf cocked his head. "I wonder how much of his army those One Worlders have trained and equipped?
It could get really interesting, if you find the opening shots of a cross-dimensional war interesting."

Harry snorted. "Only if we wind up in the middle of it."

1375
Late Fall

Fascia, Auralia

Lefty eyed the
main street of Fascia. "Hard to believe the Amma, the king of a huge empire, would just abandon it, like this."

"Pax saw what the comet fall did to the world last
time. Finding a new world, without that threat always hanging overhead is certainly attractive. Whether he used magic to influence the Amma, or just laid out the facts, we'll probably never know." The big man frowned at the road. "More soldiers leaving the palace."

"They're
escorting carriages. The Amma's family?"

"Yes, they're packed wit
h women and children."

"Let's follow them." Lefty turned and started walking.

Out of the city of Fascia, west out onto the flat plains, where a camp was in the process of being abandoned. The Earther's camp. The narrow gate anchor building was open, the gate active, soldiers marching through. The mounted troops and carriages rolled straight through the captured gate, interrupting the marching soldiers.

"No sign of the Earthers." Lefty gnawed his lip. "Poor damn fools, captured in this poisonous society."
He flicked a glance back at the city. "I hate this place. Even invading soldiers deserve better."

The Auld Wulf nodded.
Castrated and sold as slaves, mostly to the mines, where they'll be lucky to live a year.
"Pax must be on the other side of the gate, influencing the controllers on the far side. They don't usually leave the gate open for so long." He bit his lip.
Fourteen centuries ago, I was born on that world, served in the army of a polity that has apparently been rolled into a single world-wide government. They turned on me, on all everyone with genetic engineering. I don't owe them any loyalty. And if I interrupt Pax's control at this stage, it would all end in bloodshed. Perhaps if I leave them alone, they'll pass through in
relative
peace.

"Are those the Oners?" Lefty gestured at some new vehicles that rolled into the procession.

"Yes." The Auld Wulf closed his eyes, the better to use his internal vision more clearly. "They have some complex magnetic equipment . . . I think they have two gate anchors. They must be planning to turn them on, on the other side."

"So they'll have three gates to push troops through? Not something I'd wish on my worst enemies."

"Especially since it will help our other worst enemies. I think I can crunch up something inside . . . and then maybe they won't be able to hold an interdimensional war, with us in the middle." Wolf was too far away for details, or subtlety. He just crushed a handful of electrical components inside the two mechanisms. It would either be enough, or not. They disappeared through the gate.

The last soldiers marched through. A sudden rush, women and children, following their soldier husbands and fathers. Or perhaps customers. Some carts, some livestock . . . the gate swirled shut.

Lefty heaved a deep breath. "Unfortunately, we have no way to see what's happening on Earth."

"
Poor sods. The Earth and the Empire may deserve each other, but it's the individuals who pay."

1375 Late Fall

Section One, Foothills Province, Kingdom of the West

Rustle was getting
very good at opening gates, out on the empty plains.

She and Xen
lived in the Traveler's wagon, but for the comet fall, Rustle had raised a solid rock dome from a granite outcrop, and shoved steel supports through it. It could, barely, hold the wagon and the four horses.

"I think it'll survive any blast or quakes." Rustle reached out and hugged Xen. "Even without extra shielding. In case I get so tired trying to shift the comet that I can't raise shielding."
The swale between low hills was roughly two hundred miles away from Ash, and nearly another hundred from where she was opening the gates. Sufficient to not worry about a dinosaur eating Xen before she realized the danger. She had a corridor from the dome to Ash, but traveled the rest of the way to her experimental area.

Xen was
very good. A little worried, but the dogs and the horse seemed to reassure him. He had been adamantly against staying with anyone else. "Everyone is busy. So I'll stay with you. You just do gates. Everyone else is running around like crazy."

She'd opened five
gates here, so far. One every second or third day was about her limit. And she hadn't been able to close any. On the far sides, the Worlds varied from several so empty they had few bugs to one that was full of people and hissing, steaming, carts that rolled without obvious motive power. Fascinating . . . but exploring the other worlds was going to have to wait. If they could divert the comet, or most of it, they would have the time to study these fascinating places.

Right now, she checked them carefully for danger, while she recovered enough to open another one.

She'd gone back to Ash and opened a gate through to one of the empty Worlds, and worrying about the people to the south, another one at the Wizard's Tower. She'd opened a third in Gemstone. It was infuriatingly hard to open gates back to the same World again, but she was getting the hang of it. But it was a good thing that they were at least a long term if not permanent phenomenon. She understood now why the Earther's had those "anchors." It would be easy to lose a world, and never find it again.

She sat and studied the bubbles and the dimly seen 'sheets' of Worlds. Why did she seem to see a different one each time? She watched as they came in and out of view as the bubbles surged and streamed past. She grabbed cones and tried again.

She blinked back into awareness and stepped through the new gate.

Green rolling hills. Greener than home, which had dried to a golden color months ago. This grass was frost browned
but regrowing. She looked up, waning half moon, turned to show a different side than she was used to. The fuzzy spot of the close comet showed that it was rising three hours after the Sun . . .

She muttered under her breath. "
The comet has missed and the Moon rotates." However much she failed to understand why, if the comet was past, then a corridor from Karista to here would save a lot of people. "Or maybe the comets are in slightly different orbits, so there's no danger, here, at all."

She sat and started writing up her notes and observations, moving back and forth through the
gate as she looked for references and made as many observations as possible, as the days ticked away, and in her own sky, the comet outshown the Moon and dominated the sky all evening and well into the night.

It's bigger every night. Three weeks . . .

1375
Late Fall

Karista

". . . utter chaos on the Auralian border. I finally just went over and got a few officers drunk. The problem is that the Amma just picked up and left, with his harem, children and the core of their home army.
Most of his local nobles, but not the regional Solti's. And those "Oners" that were there, their embassy building is vacant, abandoned.

"The rest of the Army? N
ot knowing about gates, they don't understand how very gone he is. The new Amma, a grandson of the old one, is trying to hold things together, and has sent out commands for them to all move to hard rock and build shelters, store supplies, and help the local villages and towns do the same. No money, no directions, no other orders. So the troops decided the End of the World was coming and maybe a quarter of them have just gone wild. Rape, loot and pillage, in their own territories, as well as ours." The officer ran down and ended with a shrug. "If I hadn't served in Asia, and seen those Earthers coming and going, I wouldn't believe it either."

Marshal Treham took over. "So we're slapping them down as we encounter them, and we've braced and fortified everything imaginable. Farofo, I think three quarters of the population has moved north. Havwee is stuffed, and I think most of the refugees kept going."

Rufi nodded. "Yes. Karista's stuffed as well. Well. You've got those corridors now. Use your judgment about sending the troops north. Two weeks and it'll all be over, and hopefully we'll just be carrying on dealing with the same old problems." he glanced back at his only remaining magic worker. "Lefty, go to Ash, do whatever you can to help. Report back whenever you can. I'm going to be busy talking to all the rest of the troops, as well as the Council and the King until after. So, good luck."