Wine of the Gods 1: Exiles and Gods (24 page)

"She likes doing that to men." The high pitched voice came from down around his belt buckle.

A girl, eight, maybe nine?

"A hundred and seventeen. Mother keeps storing me away and forgetting about me."

Simon winced. The girl had plain brown hair and eyes, sallow skin with none of her mother’s dark honey glow.

"Every time I wake up, everybody I knew has died. Or grown up. It’s a good thing she doesn’t let me have any friends." The girl’s voice was aching with loneliness and there were tears in her eyes as she looked away.

"What about the other gods? Is one of them your father?"

She shrugged. "Mother says she teleported sperm to get me, that she’s still a virgin. And the only one that even cares is Harry, and I don’t look at all like him. If I ever grow up, maybe I’ll marry him."

Simon shivered.
Four generations since the Exile. And she’s been allowed out only enough to grow to eight or nine years of age.

He heard a giggle over the background noise, and tracked its source. Amused, with her constant companion Flattered. They were in a group of youngsters, no red heads in sight. A few of the older generation were looking askance at them. No one quite knew how to deal with a pair of witches who hadn’t sense enough to be both traumatized and ashamed of, well, whatever had really happened.

To his left Art strolled in. The young woman on his arm looked very much like him. Mercy smiled deeply into his eyes and he smiled back.
Is that how she stays so powerful, despite all the vicious petty incidences? And the not so petty, but every bit as vicious, major actions she sometimes takes?

Edmund and Barry walked in together, one brother golden blonde, the other a flaming redhead. Otherwise identical. According to rumor, Barry attempted to restrain his appetites, but they were the same appetites his brother reveled in. They both had children en-train so to speak. The redheaded brothers were eyeing matched triplet girls. Sixteen or seventeen, breathtakingly beautiful, as blonde as Barry.

"They’re witches. Mother says I’m a Goddess, not a witch. I wish I was a witch."

"Are all the gods bringing their children tonight?"

"Some of them. They’re trying to show off, prove they’re better than Pax. But Mother likes Pax best. I’m glad I don’t look like him."

Simon looked down at her. "You don’t look like any of them. You look like yourself. Which is the best thing, anyway." He squashed his thoughts and kept observing. Richie came in, alone this time. Then another man who teased at Simon’s memory.

"That’s Chance."

"Ah. I’m Simon Golan, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Golan. I’m Grace." Her forehead crinkled. "I don’t know if I have a last name."

"Well, if you were a witch, it would be Mercydaut. Otherwise I expect it would depend on who your father is."

"Ick. I don’t like any of those. I’ll be Mrs. Grace Traveler."

"Hmm, Well, until you marry, perhaps you should be Miss Grace Determined."

She laughed out loud, and clapped a hand over her mouth, with a guilty look toward her mother. Mercy was too busy, in a circle of male gods, to be paying her daughter any attention.

The halo of youngsters around them was clumping to one side now, and Simon spotted Amused and Flattered closing in on them.

"Oh, this is going to be interesting." Simon edged a little nearer.

Amused had a tight smile on her face. "Oh, do introduce us to your
cousins
."

Grace snickered. Then sobered as Mercy looked around with a frown. "Got to go. I’m sorry you won’t be alive next time. You’re nice." Then she wove through the thin crowd and walked up to her mother. Ugly duckling, beautiful inside. The opposite of her mother. And far enough away that the girl couldn’t pick his brain, Simon noted the resemblance of her features to the God of Peace’s. She may not have gotten either parent’s spectacular coloring, but her face spoke volumes.

"I don’t see why we have to go now, Chance! In the middle of a party?" Mercy sounded seriously put out.

Chance just spread his arms. The redheads grabbed Amused and Flattered. They all disappeared. Air whoosed in with a sharp snap, to fill the space where sixteen people had stood.

Simon hissed in annoyance. "Did anyone hear where they were going to go?"

One man turned and stared at him. "They were talking about the observatory, but that's nearly five hundred miles away."

A woman leaned into the open space. "Should we leave this space open, for when they come back?"

Everyone drew back a bit.

"Good idea." Someone in the crowd said.

"Better idea. Where
'd the wine go?"

"Damn, damn, damn." Simon bit his lip. Stay or go? Would they be right back? If he left now, it would be weeks before he got there, and well over a month before he returned. Was he about to destroy his ordinary appearance, the only thing that kept him safe in this nest of vipers?

He turned and strode out. Dr. Frasier turned up on his heels. "What are you going to do?"

Frasier was exactly what he looked, but he knew Simon wasn’t.

"Get to the observatory as quickly as I can." Simon hopped the tram for the trip down the hill, and jogged for his apartment. By the time he’d gotten the much folded bit of metal out and grabbed his always-ready-to-run smaller case and returned to the street, Frasier had caught up to him.

"What’s that? Oh . . ."

Simon unfolded, and unfolded and unfolded the metal, leaned the resulting big square frame up against the wall and led the mares out. They were harnessed, and pulling the light carriage.

"I’ve always wanted to see one of those trans-dimensional bubbles." Frasier sounded wistful.

"I’ll let you play with it when I get back. For now, tell people I’m ill. Or had some crazy idea and ran off to check on it, who knows where." Simon folded the metal frame that sealed the bubble and stuck it in his coat. Tossed the bag into the carriage and climbed in himself.

Frasier was gawping at the horses. "They're pretty. Are they fast?"

"They are crosses of some of the fastest thoroughbreds and arabs, crossed back twice with the War God’s stallion. I’ve never found their limits, but I’m going to try now. Later, Frasier." He picked up the reins and the mares moved out quickly, picking up his nerves. "God of Travelers, be with me tonight, I need to get someplace fast, with no holdups or breakdowns."

For better or worse, the only excitement on the trip was when Mary caught Heidi and Mike naked in the bushes.

"I can’t believe you’re so stupid. You aren’t even married. You aren’t even eloping."

"Yes we are. We just haven’t had an opportunity to get married yet."

"And you trust that, that
mage
to marry you?" The maid scowled over at River. "He spends too much time listening to her nonsensical magic lessons. Good grief, all the silly kids' songs and rhymes? There’s got to be more to magic than
that
!"

On the twenty-third day they made it up the last climb to the long level ridge that was the top of the mountain. By the time they’d crossed the last two miles to the white dome of the observatory, they been spotted.

"You’re not our supply wagon." The man looked baffled to have visitors.

River gave him a compassionate smile. "I regret to inform you that you’re going to have even more visitors. The Goddess of Mercy, I’m sure of. How many other gods? Who knows. This new cluster of comets has everyone worried and wanting more information."

"Huh. Well, for starters, this clump has mostly de-gassed. It’s mostly asteroids, we’ve found eighteen of significant size. So far. The last bright comet just quit, so we can finally over-expose plates and see all the dark ones. We took a bunch of plates over the last few days. We’ve been measuring them, comparing them to the plates we took last month and calculating the exact orbits of the biggest ones. Should be done in another week or two. No good bothering us until then."

"I’ll set up camp, umm, just over the rim, so as to not block anything."

"No campfires. Can’t have any light at night. At least camp to the south. The comets are rising slightly to the north." He shook his head. "Good grief. Go camp or something. Let the rest of the crew sleep. We work all night, you know. What am I supposed to do with you?"

"Umm. Right. Sorry, but the gods just don’t consider anyone else’s convenience."

He rolled his eyes. "Chance comes by, now and then. I know what you mean."

She shivered, remembering the God of Chance’s colloquy about his premonitions. Half a mile wide. Time to find out the reality of the situation.

Mike turned the horses south, and they started looking for a good spot to camp.

River picked two spots, well separated. "Trust me, you do not want to be camping right next to the gods. I’ll need to be within hailing range, but you want to be over there. Honest."

The little swale was a brief steep climb down from the crest, and would easily hold three tents the size of the one she had for Mercy. She moved stones to smooth the ground, and mentally sliced off big protrusions and softened and molded the rest of the stone. River smiled as she felt how easily the earth power flowed, now.
Wonderful. Bright Quarters are so much more powerful than mere Crescent Moon witches.
Then the oil cloths, then set up the tent, again molding the rock to place the tent pegs. Unroll the padding, the rugs, pile the pillows, shake out the down comforters. She pulled back the front drapes and unrolled a last rug in front of the tent. Unfolded the folding chairs and table, and Mercy had her colorful, civilized backdrop.

River set up her own tent—large enough for one person to crawl into to sleep—the grill, the food, the plates and everything else around to the side, mostly out of sight, handy when summoned, easily able to hear everything through the silk walls.

Mary stomped over and glared at her. "Now what do we do?"

"Wait for the goddess to show up, wait on her hand and foot, and when she leaves, pack up and go home."

"I’m going to be fired—with no references, you know."

"That’s not my fault. Heidi ran away from home, and that is her decision. You decided to come and try to talk sense into her, all the way here." River shrugged. "You could have stayed in New Tokyo. Been shocked when you found Heidi gone, supported Mrs. Gardener as she tried to get her back. You are here by your own decision, own up to it."

"But they keep running off and, and . . ."

"Tell you what. The Goddess of Mercy could probably use a maid."

Mary’s eyes widened.

"Beware, she is not a nice lady."

The astronomers started wandering out from the low buildings as the sun set. They gawped a bit at the colorful silk tent, then took themselves off to the observatory. River followed them, and sat quietly as they opened the slit in the roof and aimed the long main scope at something in the east.

A chubby young man looked at her uncertainly. "The Comets won’t rise for an hour. We have other observations to make, until then."

She nodded. "Go ahead. Just ignore me until I get in the way, then tell me to move."

He laughed a little uncertainly, but skittered off to crouch over a table, taking careful measurements on something there. The others moved around efficiently, the telescope moved several times.

The sudden clatter from outside was startling. Loud voices, feet tromping on the stone. The door crashed opened and Chance led the way in. Mercy was right behind him, demanding to know why the telescope was inside.

The head astronomer came at a trot. Half the new people took a look around then stepped back outside, leaving the astronomers at the mercy of seven of the old gods.

Mercy snapped her head around and speared the old astronomer with a piercing stare. "Well? Why isn’t it outside?"

"To protect it from weather. It get very windy up here, and a big lightweight tube like this would be twisting and turning. We couldn’t get anything done." He waved at the open slit. "This is just perfect."

"Humph. Makes sense. Now, we’re all having premonitions, but they aren’t exact enough. Where is the meteor going to hit? Which city?"

"City!" There was a general recoil from the scientists drifting their way.

Art stepped up beside Mercy. "All our dreams are about it hitting a city, killing thousands of people. But we have conflicting recognition points. There’s no consensus as to which city it will actually hit. We need to know, so we can evacuate in time."

"Old Gods! Well, we don’t have the instruments from the Exile. Or those calculating machines. I remember one still working when I was a trainee." He sighed. "But we got some good plates last night. We’ll start our measurements and calculations, and get, hopefully, their movements exact enough to satisfy your needs." He raised his hands, but hesitated to shoo them out.

River eeled between Pax and Barry and stepped up behind Mercy. "I have your tent set up, if you’d like to take refreshments while these gentlemen work."

Mercy scowled at her, and then over at Chance. "I have a better idea. I’ll be back after my party is over." She disappeared with a faint pop. Chance laughed and raised his arms. River leapt away from the group and they all disappeared.

"Thank Gods." The old astronomer glanced at River. "Begging your pardon."

"No need. I’ll leave you as well." She stepped through the door, and found the gods’ children milling about. And Amused and Flattered.

"Didn’t dodge fast enough, eh?"

Shoulder to shoulder, the two of them were glaring at the usual redheads.

"Dodge, nothing, they grabbed us and hauled us along." Flattered’s attention was distracted by a giggle.

Three blonde witches, just youngsters barely settled into their power. Two others were beyond them, a grown woman and a girl, probably under ten.

"Ooo! Eight women, and only two men." Dangelo swaggered past the trio of blondes and homed in on the dark haired woman. "I don’t believe we’ve met."

"Unfortunately your reputation precedes you." She was tall and good at looking down her nose. She gave him the full treatment, then turned to the rest of them. "Regina Art."

One of the blondes nodded. "I’m Rose, this is Chrysanthemum, and Peony." The three of them eyed the older triad.

"I’m River, this is Amused and Flattered. We’re Bright Quarter Moon witches of the New Tokyo Pyramid. Where are you training?"

"Father is training us. In Rome."

River eyed Art’s daughter, and then the little girl. "Are you two witches as well?"

"Mother says I’m a goddess. I’m Miss Grace Determined." The little girl advanced fearlessly. "Can goddesses train like witches?"

"They ought to, they have the Witch gene on their X chromosome. I wonder what’s on your other. Do you know?"

"No. Mother doesn’t talk about me very often."

Now the other red head spoke up. "I’m Ristofe Vice and this is my brother Dangelo. We’re mages. Y-chromosome from Dad, right?"

"I see." River bit her lip. "Do any of you know how long we’re going to be up here? I brought stuff for Mercy for a week. Food, you know?"

"Wine, I hope." Dangelo looked her up and down. "You’re that witch Dad is after. What does he see in you?"

"Richie’s daughter. Does tupping a rival’s daughter give a god points in some fantasy game of theirs?"

"Fantasy game? Darling they play the real thing. The fantasy is that ordinary people have any rights."

"Well, did you realists bring any food along?"

The blondes had a whole room in a bubble. With pantry.

The men had a bubble each, loaded with plenty of drinkable supplies. They popped corks, River produced glasses, and a small but rowdy party was underway.

"Mother doesn’t let me drink wine." Grace took a sip and choked.

River tasted it, removed a pack of spells, leaned and removed them from the kid’s drink as well.

"What was that you just did? I could almost see it."

"Watch." River circulated, removing spells. The blondes thought it was funny and she had to demonstrate taking them off while the brothers put them on. Then she left them to their own peril and shifted the little girl a bit further away.

"Have you had the basic training?" Nope. River showed her the starting meditations and the basic charms.

When she checked the party, Mike, Heidi and Mary had joined in. Mary was standing by Regina, both of them looking appalled. The blonde triad was judging a three way kissing contest. Heidi and Mike were doing a good job, but Amazing and Flattered had gone beyond kissing to foreplay.

"Yuck." Grace turned away and Mary and Regina joined her.

River grabbed a bottle of wine and took them down to the tents, and they sat at the folding chairs and played cards with a tiny bit of light. "So we don’t mess up the astronomy." The ridge kept most of the noise from the other party away. She heated water and brewed tea. Raided the supplies she'd bought for Mercy, for cookies.

After a while Mike and Heidi wandered by, arms around each other, and waved as they passed.

Mary scowled. Regina’d had enough wine to look a little wistful. River sighed and wished Simon was here.
Even though I ought not have anything to do with a wizard.

It was well past midnight when Mercy stormed into the campsite. She stopped dead at the mundane sight of the four of them playing cards. River swallowed, glad she’d brought out the tea set and tossed the wine bottle.

The Goddess visibly relaxed, and smiled. "River, I might have known you’d be more sensible than that triad of yours. Not to mention Barry’s and Edmund’s children."

River shook her head. "It’s unfortunate, how witches advance, but that doesn’t excuse . . . well. When we get back to town I’ll speak to the Eldest about those two silly girls." She quickly changed the subject. "Have the astronomers finished their calculations?"

"I dare say we’ll find out later today when they are sober and back working."

"Oh. Dear. I suppose Barry’s triad felt they needed a few more men around."

"They appear to have gotten seven. At least they didn’t kill any of them." Mercy eyed the quiet girl. "Well, Grace, it’s definitely past your bedtime. And mine, for that matter. Good night, Ladies." She ushered Grace into the tent and released the curtains.

River picked up the tea service. "Do you have anyplace to stay, Regina?"

"If my father is here, I’d best check with him . . . Oh." She looked up the hill a bit.

Art looked around, nodded his approval to his daughter, and pulled an amazingly ornate little house out of nowhere and set it beside Mercy’s tent.

"Thank you for the tea, and the card game, River, Mary." She raised her voice a bit. "Goodnight Grace, your ladyship."

Mary trotted off, but returned with her own bedding before River’d cleaned up.

"Tomorrow I am going to be the world’s best damned maid." She kept her voice very low, and laid out her blankets beyond River’s tiny encampment. 

She was the World’s best damned maid for two weeks, while the astronomers recovered from their introduction to witches and Chance helped calculate the positions of the asteroids.

The wilder set dropped down to a lower altitude, and returned with wild goats for the slowly expanding field kitchen.

Just as well. When the four huge dogs showed up, River had a pile of offal and bones and apparently gained good karma from the God of Just Deserts, who mostly stayed away from the dome and harassed the other Gods and their children until they presented a united front and sent him away.