Wine of the Gods 1: Exiles and Gods (25 page)

River found herself teaching Regina and the blondes as well as Grace. Grace had grasped power very young, and Regina hadn’t been trained in anything specific to witches. Amused and Flattered were thrilled to be the most advanced witches and readily took the others under their wings. Ristofe and Dangelo just laughed and grabbed Mike for some mage practice, frequently roping in one of the gods so they could form a lesser compass.

River poked her nose into the dome, when she found the time. The problem there was not so much the calculations as making sure which asteroid was which between any two photographic plates. Plates taken twice a night settled that, and the calculations contained the bad news. One definite impact. Probably off the tip of Indonesia.

"In the ocean. That’s good, we can warn ships away . . ." the astronomer broke off. All the gods were shaking their heads.

"Tsunami. Isn’t that the right term?" Edmund scowled up at the telescope as if it were its fault.

Art nodded. "I remember. A wave of water, usually from an underwater earthquake, but this . . ."

Chance looked down at his figures. "It’ll be slow, as meteors go. But if it’s as big as we think it is, the energy . . ."

The old astronomer nodded. "New Miami will be the closest. If it hits a bit to the Pacific side of the peninsula, New Tokyo could see the wave. Probably won’t wrap the tip of India. New Bombay should be safe. Let me calculate. You know, sometimes we’ve had dangerous waves, that’s why the building codes keep residences back from the shoreline. I wonder how many of those are caused by meteors hitting the ocean." He was still mumbling as he sat down and picked up a pencil.

River shifted uneasily, she could feel an undercurrent but couldn’t tap in. Time to stir the pot. "Could we move it a little? Get it to hit on land? No one lives on the peninsula."

The gods exchanged looks, the astronomers perked up. "It looks like just a hundred miles north and the problems would be so much less."

Mercy frowned and looked at the map. "That puts it a bit closer to New Miami."

"Go north, away from the city, go north." "Go north, away from the city, go north." The voices tangled, male and female, recognizable and strange.
River blinked; the voices went away. No one else appeared to have heard them. She looked at the map, the circles were labeled with percent certainties that the meteor would hit inside it. New Miami was just outside the northwest edge of the ninety percent circle. The ninety-five percent and ninety-eight percent circles made it look unlikely New Miami would be hit . . .

"Still far enough away for safety, and the air blast will be much safer than the water wave." Barry ran his fingers over the map. "I remember things like this, now that my memory’s been bumped. How about if we could move it even further north, get it north of you, and further away that way."

"And New Bombay’s far enough west we don’t have a worry there." Pax put in. His eyes were narrowed in thought and he and Mercy exchanged silent glances.

River shivered.
They can do it, they’re gods. But New Bombay’s much further west, they couldn’t move it that far. Wouldn’t. Surely. A hundred miles, two hundred. Sure. But a thousand or more?
She rubbed her arms, feeling the goose bumps that had nothing to do with the cool temperature.

Pax stepped in and rolled up the map. "This is what we need, what we came for." He disappeared, and the rest of the gods popped out as well.

The old astronomer grumbled something under his breath, then spoke up. "Don’t just stand there, get another map. They left all the calculations here."

The staff startled back into movement. River slipped out and looked around. No one around. She walked down and found the silk tent standing alone, Art’s little house gone, and Regina with it.

Amused and Flattered were standing with Grace, looking around. They spotted her and walked over. "Virtue and Vice came and got their children, Regina grabbed Mary, saying she needed a sensible maid and ran off too."

"How about Heidi and Mike? I guess it’s time for us to all pack up and head home." River frowned at the silk tent. "And now I have to pack all of that. Oh well. If Mrs. Gardener won’t accept that those two are married, I’ll give them the tent. They’ll need it."

Grace sighed. "That’s so romantic. But, the best thing of all is that my mother forgot me.
I
can have an adventure."

"Well, I hate to poke holes in your expectations, but I hope we don’t have an adventure. Bandits and storms and such . . . Oh, don’t look so hopeful!"

The girl grinned. "Bandits! Maybe they'll kidnap me. But instead of being ransomed, I’ll join the band and be the most vicious bandit ever!" She danced around, almost helping with the packing. The witches returned with a scowling Mike and Heidi.

"We don’t want to go back to New Tokyo."

River blinked at them. "I see. Well, there’s no other roads until we’re down off this mountain. Then the road to New Miami splits off to the south, so why don’t you plan on taking us at least that far. Then we can see if the rest of us can hire a ride with a merchant caravan or some such."

Grace started bouncing. "Caravan! A caravan!"

By the time they got everything packed, it was noon. And when they climbed out of the little vale, they spotted another vehicle. River narrowed her eyes. Those bay horses looked awfully familiar, and the light carriage very out of place.

A week to the top of Mt. Tambour was unheard of. Simon figured his prayers to the God of the Roads had something to do with it. Even the mares were tired.

And the place was deserted. He slumped in disappointment. The mares kept going, and stopped by the dome.

Midday, most likely the staff is asleep.

He climbed down and walked stiffly over to the door. The dome was closed, the huge circular room hushed and quiet in the daylight from the open door. A table bore a map, several maps. Piles of papers full of calculations, some spilled off onto the floor. Simon studied the map. Concentric circles with percentage marks were centered off the tip of Indonesia. A line was drawn up the broad peninsula, marked off every hundred miles.

"What the hell?"

"An asteroid."

He spun around. He recognized the voice. "River! I thought everyone was gone." Silhouetted in the open door, she was a bit . . . less slender?

"You should have seen the mess. Seven of them, eight for a bit, but they ran Just Deserts off. I guess the other gods are immune to him. They all popped back home just before dawn. I’ve just finished packing everything up." She’d walked down to the table as she spoke. She looked down at the map.

Simon pulled his eyes away from an examination of her figure and looked at the map. "An asteroid?"

She touched the center circle. "They think it will hit here. Apparently water collisions are bad, start huge waves. So they, the gods, are going to try to push it north. A hundred miles, and it’ll be on land. Three hundred and it’ll be safely far from New Miami." She drew her hand westward toward New Bombay, and shook her head. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I . . . I wanted to talk to you. I should have, immediately. I . . . We. . ."

"Simon . . . I’m a witch. There isn’t a ‘we.’ There never can be."

"But. I mean, I know that, but, I hadn’t intended . . . sorry, I rushed here, but it still took long enough that you’d think I’d have had time to figure out what to say."

"That we had a lovely night together. That anytime you’re in New Tokyo you should drop me a note."

"I didn’t mean to. Well. Umm."

"If you extend regrets I
will
hit you."

He started laughing. "I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. It was a lovely night and I want more of them. I guess I’ll just have to find lots of reasons to find myself in New Tokyo."
Dear gods, am I going to keep using you? Maybe I’m cold blooded enough to be a proper spy after all.
He didn’t feel very cold-blooded, though, as he leaned and kissed her.

"Eww, gross!" A familiar little girl voice.

"Oooweee! Go River! Your cute professor came to save you from the dissolute gods."

River pulled away from him and glared at her fellow witch. "Simon, we’re about to head back to New Tokyo, except for those who will be splitting off and heading south. How about you?"

"I, umm, think I’ve concluded my business here. May I offer you a ride?"

"Absolutely."

And while they went off to finished their packing, he unharnessed the mares and gave them a good feed while he hastily pulled supplies from his bubble and stuffed the leather boot with horse and people food and an oil cloth and blankets.

When the others drove the wagon up to the road, he added Grace to his passenger list and let the mares dawdle behind the bigger wagon as they started down the steepest part of the road. And that was because he liked the little girl, not so River would have to sit closer to him, as claimed by the other two witches.

They stopped early, the worst slope safely negotiated. A north facing scarf protected a snow bank from the sun and even now it was barely melting, a trickle of water filling and spilling from stone hollows with a natural beauty that would be the envy of rock gardeners everywhere, had they ever ventured this high.

A delighted Grace helped brush Artemis and Diana. "Mother thinks horses are smelly and dangerous. She won't even let me have a pony."

They raided Mercy's supplies to house Amused, Flattered and Grace . . . and somehow River's bedroll ended up right beside his.

"Is that nice? With all these people around?" He suspected he wasn't keeping all the whine out of his voice.

River grinned. "Two weeks until we're back in civilization sufficient for inns and privacy. Big tough guy like you can handle it."

"I'm not a big tough guy. I'm a university professor."

She snickered and headed back to the wagon. "I hope you like tough, stringy mountain goat. It's what we've got the most of, and needs to get eaten before we're out of the chillier altitudes."

"Yummy. For me. I have a suspicion you lot may be sick and tired of it." He blinked at the lump of meat River unrolled from a paper wrapper. It was coated with spices and smelled vaguely of wine and something citrus. "I'll get a fire going." He swallowed saliva.
All this and a good cook besides. Maybe I can lure her over to the good side. Despite her mother, father, triad, pyramid . . .
He sighed and fetched the charcoal and grill from the wagon.

The temperatures warmed as they dropped down to the North Road that stretched from New Miami to New Tokyo. Four hundred miles to New Tokyo one way, and twelve hundred to Miami the other.

The Old Wolf had explained to him, years ago, that the names of the cities were taken from Earth cities, some because they were in approximately the same place on this "Earth" and some from nostalgia. The god had said that the original Tokyo was located on an island a thousand miles further northeast, and Miami on another continent altogether.

At the crossroad, they put their heads together and split up their supplies, River fussing over Heidi and Mike like a mother hen.

"We'll be able to buy stuff in another four or five days. You guy's will have to get most of the way to Miami before there's any place . . . oh, stop laughing. I know you can hunt. All right. And no, Grace, you cannot go with them. I have no wish to be incinerated by your mother. And this way you'll get at least another week of magic practice."

Simon winked at the girl. "And the bandits are thicker on the ground to the north."

Her eyes brightened at that.

Two days later, Grace got her wish.

The twenty riders must have felt invincible. A light carriage with one man, three young women and a child? Four of them rode out to block the road in front of them. Simon glanced back and spotted more riders blocking the rear, as an even dozen horsemen galloped down from the trees to the left. They didn't rush, and Simon could see their grins.

"I've got a shield up, in case they decide to toss some arrows around." River didn't sound too worried. "Go forward another twenty feet, that'll spread them out the most."

Simon eased the reins for a few more strides, then pulled the horses up, hoping that the young witches weren't over confident. "Didn't realize there were large companies working the roads."
Wish I was riding.

He reached under the seat and pulled out a crossbow, a case of bolts and his sword.

Grace's eyes widened, and the looks she was darting toward the approaching men was apprehensive.

Reality crushes dreams, again.

River jumped down from the carriage, and Simon blinked a bit at the sight of her bare feet.
Does their contact with Earth need to be that immediate?
He tied off the reins and stood to cock the bow. Little flicks of movement; he turned his head in time to recognize darts bouncing off of absolutely nothing. "Can I fire out?"

"Umm, I can't make it one way. But once we start attacking, it'll be down." River reached out to the other two witches. Simon blinked at the sudden burst of glowing power around the three of them. River dropped the other witches' hands, turned and thrust her left hand, palm out. A horse in the lead crashed suddenly to the ground, flinging his rider under the hooves of the other horses, tripping the horse behind; two others veered and bumped.

Simon's mares stomped and tossed their heads. "Whoa!"
Poor girls, trained to fight and all harnessed up and hitched to the carriage.

Simon aimed, hit the rider furthest to the right, cocked, slid the bolt into place, turned and got the one trying flank the witches to the left, cock, slide, lift, another to the left. Cock, drop bow and draw sword as a bandit reined his horse around the mares and came at Simon from the other side. Simon deflected his sword, lunged, but the bandit was already out of reach, reining around to come back.

The bandit's head jerked and he slid limply off the horse, as the horse stumbled and fell.

Quick survey, only four bandits still mounted in that first group; the ones on the ground didn't look very belligerent. But both the front and rear blockers were charging in to join the fray. Simon set the sword down on the seat, picked up the bow, slid the dart and took out the leader of the front group. Cock, slide, lift and aim.

A feminine cry twitched his attention, the bolt flew wide. Cock, slide, lift, aim.

"Grace, will you hop down here and help us." River sounded like she was serving tea.

Cock, slide, lift, aim. Simon couldn't see much, the next man was crouched, trying to hide behind his horse's neck. Simon dropped his aim, and the horse threw up its head with a shriek, then collapsed. Cock, slide, lift, aim . . . at a rider reining hastily around and spurring for safety. Simon turned.

The rear guard was close and at a dead run. River stepped forward and slashed her hand horizontally. Blood exploded from four horses, the bodies tumbled, the witches dodged. One rider rolled to his feet. Jerked as Simon's bolt hit, and fell.

One of the fallen horses was screaming. River stepped into the horrible mess, drawing her knife.

Silence fell.

Muffled hoofbeats as the loose horses galloped away. A few of the bandits were moving, only two on their feet, and they were running. The others were hitching painfully away. A horse staggered to its feet and hobbled off.

River turned and grabbed Grace in a hug.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, there were too many of them to do anything else. I wish you hadn't had to see that, though."

Grace's voice caught in a sob. "I don't want to be a bandit any more. I could hear what they were thinking. They were
ugly
inside."

Simon jumped down to where Flattered was hovering over Amused. A long slash down her arm bled freely. She was pale with shock, crying.

Simon grabbed his first aid kit. A bottle of iodine. He poured it on, ignoring her indrawn scream. A roll of bandage, a long strip of gauze. He started at the top. River reached in, pressed the wound closed and covered it with gauze, while he wrapped. The roll was soaked through as fast as he worked, but it wasn't dripping when he was done. He pulled out a second bottle. "One swallow."

Flattered steadied Amused's hand and she took a swallow. And relaxed, her eyes widening. "Oh, wow, who made that? It's marvelous." She leaned her head back against Flattered and her eyes closed.

"Is she dead?" Grace whimpered.

A loud snore from Amused, and the girl burst into tears.

Simon brought out a jug of water and they washed hastily. He circled the battle field, freed two lamed horses of their tack. Cut the throat of one with a broken leg. One horse and two bandits appeared to have been magically stunned. He stripped the tack from the horse. If it recovered first, the bandits wouldn't have him to ride. He found and pulled four of the eight bolt's he'd fired. Although he certainly hoped this was the only bandit gang working the road, and he wouldn't need them again.

"Ordinarily I'd bury bandits, spare the next travelers a really nasty stinking mess, but there's more than a dozen of them and six dead horses. They're just going to have to stink." Simon picked Amused up and settled her on the carriage seat. River waved Flattered up with her, and lifted Grace to sit on the boot before climbing up beside her.

Several miles down the road, Flattered turned her head and eyed River's back. "What on Earth was that last spell? It was horrible!"

"Slash. It's like the hardest shield possible, super thin, thinner than a razor, thinner than an oil sheen on water, and you . . . slash it across. But you've got to be so close you can almost touch what you're slashing. I didn't have anything else left. Tomorrow I ought to be able to do . . . something. Maybe."

Simon put another five miles behind them, then stopped where the road forded a small river, reduced to a trickle in the summer heat. "Let's get some food into you witches. Can't have the lot of you fainting on me. Two's my limit for dealing with fainting beauties."

Grace smiled a little bit at that.

Two days later they passed the first farm villages, all with defensive walls. And found the first inn.

"Hot baths!" Flattered sounded starved.

Amused looked a bit apprehensive, and the other witches led her away to soak the bandage off. An hour later they joined him at the table. A bit wide-eyed.

Amused flexed her arm. "What was that potion?"

"I picked it up ages ago when I passed through Sahara. The Goddess of Healing is credited with it."