Wine of the Gods 1: Exiles and Gods (5 page)

Harry looked down at his bandages in disgust.
I want to go, to explore this new world. I want to see everything. Instead, I’m stuck here, not even able to help.
We could get run over by predators, or for that matter, elephants. We’re guessing about how tall to make the walls, what if we’re wrong? We’d be stuck inside
with
the lions.
He shook his head. “Stop emoting, Harry.”
Talking to myself now? Well, hardly the strangest thing about me. What I need to do is build a good, large house for these kids, and get them well set up and independent before I take off exploring. Which will have the added advantage of giving me a home to come back to.

Home.

It seemed like a foreign concept. Like something he’d never had before.

"They may have had
their brains scrambled by the gate stuff, but they aren't dangerous to us. I don't see any sign of a desire to own us or control us." Chris surveyed the pack of kids. The four littlest were collapsed in a puppy-heap with a couple of the girls hovering over them. Scary to see otherwise attractive females going gooey in the brain. The tall native grass was tromped down in a circle beside the bus. Most likely they'd sleep inside again, even if the walls were finished today.

"I think we can depend on them to fend
off other controlling people—like those teachers—while we steer them in the right direction. And they do need help. Hell, they need keepers."

Ariel, who was not interested in the littles, nodded. "I
think it was the wires in their brains. I think they messed something up when they ripped loose."

Chris shuddered at the thought.
"Nobody ought to be allowed to do that."

Mallory nodded. "It's slavery. Worse. They were treated like animals."

"They're part animal. So are we, but not as much." Lillian sniffed.

"One or two genes."
Milly frowned at the other girl.

"They're people. They aren't animals." Jamie crossed her arms. "Gisele is
brilliant
. We talked about medical school."

"Oh, enough." Chris waved the gods' defenders down. "If they come to arrest them, we'll hide them. Or just watch for goons and warn them. They have a whole world to get lost in. And they can certainly take care of themselves."

"I'm not so sure about Harry, he needs help the most. But those building techniques are awesome." Matt was another of the almost eighteen year olds. "I think we should get Harry to open a . . . well, if we're headed for a Medieval existence, call it a Tavern and Inn. As we grow up, we'll move away, and then Harry can rent rooms. Be the Barkeeper. It'll be a good job for him if his leg doesn't heal right."

That got nods.

Milly added, “He looks so old. The others look, well, I suppose in their twenties. But we need to keep an eye on Harry. He's a nice old guy.”

Right. We'll just adopt the most powerful and scary people I've ever met.
Chris waffled.

Lillian
shrugged. "We'll keep an eye on Giselle as well, she goes all odd sometimes."

"We'll make sure Harry and Gisele ha
ve got homes. Anyhow, we’ll all want places for our own, as we get older. For now an inn sort-of-thing would let us have some privacy and freedom, and still take care of the little guys." Chris looked at his scribbled notes.
I hope someone knows how to make paper.
"Next thing: they're talking about school and college. I wasn't learning a thing in high school. I think we can just quit at about fourteen or fifteen. Work for awhile, figure out what we want to be, then either start college level classes if we can find an expert, or just apprentice, get the lectures while also learning hands on. Like Jamie working in the hospital."

Since that got twenty-seven of the thirty-eight kids who were awake, out of school, it was generally approved of.

The other eleven kids scowled. One of them, Dane Kyber, nodded reluctantly. "That sounds about right, but right now we need to earn a place here in the village as equals to any adults. We need to work, build and own our own homes, with or without this tavern of yours. And we especially need to stick to these gods, and learn how to do magic."
Kid was pretty smart, for fourteen
.

"But . . . " Benita frowned. "I just had my diabetes
gene fixed. I'm not magic."

"What suites do you have? Do you know what company did them?" Milly drummed
her fingers. "I researched most of the companies. My laptop will have the suites they were all offering, if it still works after being tossed around by that landing." She got up abruptly and climbed into the bus.

"How long will your batteries last, though?" Dane followed her.

"I've got a solar charger, but still, a couple of years and computers will be useless. Something is bound to break." She pulled a backpack out of the crammed vehicle and lugged it back outside.

"So
? That means we need to produce something we can sell on Earth, so we can buy stuff."

Chris craned his neck and watched the screen over her shoulder. "Yeah. So, this list of suites, I've got the Happy Kids BTSS and something . . . F23?"

"Ooo! Bigger, taller, stronger, smarter! That's got improved antibodies and multiple enhanced cancer response, too. And the male power gene. Plus F23. That's a cosmetic thing, hair color, eye color, natural skin tones, nose shape. Happy Kids made most of theirs additive instead of replacement. So you've got your Dad's nose, slightly modified and so forth."

Chris sighed. "Mom's nose, actually. So, Mom and Dad never told me I
was genetically engineered. Guess they were afraid I'd tell someone. Or afraid of what I might do, if I tried, you know, stuff. Like kill from ten feet away with a wave of your hand." He started to wave his hand, and tucked it hastily in a pocket.

Mi
lly shrugged. "The power genes, because of the god controversy, were removed from their standard suites at some point. Fifteen years ago? And nobody
ever
did the double power genes for kids who belonged to someone. No gods 'out in the wild,' so to speak, except the early university experiments. Some of us may have two copies of the Witch gene, but that's a dominant, so two doesn't give us any more oomph than one, doesn't make me a Goddess. Lots of parents left out the power genes on purpose anyway. Anyone with BTSS2 doesn't have one unless they specifically asked to have it put back in. For NewGene . . .  And let me see if I can find out when Number One Kids did it . . ."

"They didn't really call them Witches and Magicians. That was the
media's fault. They went all sensationalist and ruined it for everyone." Lillian scowled, and read over Milly's shoulder.

Eventually they organized and sorted themselves out.

"Thirteen Witches, twelve Magicians, and two people with that substitute California Kids tried to call Wizard. It didn't work very well." Milly looked around at them. "We need to ask for magic lessons.”

Chris
shuffled his feet, his stomach flopped over. “That’s why we were exiled.”

Milly nodded. “I know, but think! Now we’re on a World where most of the kids have engineered genes.”

Chris nodded slowly.
Iris was exiled, that means she's engineered. Or her brother. Or both.
“And about half of us with power genes. If no one is prejudiced, then we could use it for anything. Openly. I wonder what we can do? I wonder if the gods know? As soon as we’ve got the wall up, I’m going to ask them.”

Milly nodded. “
We’re
going to ask them.”

The bus had a shortwave radio. Lance fiddled with it, not broadcasting, but listening in as other people talked about what they were doing. Most of them had lost livestock, and were building walls as fast as possible. One place had a large river, and crocodiles. They also had three gods, and the person on the radio sounded a bit dubious. A group right on the lake reported that the water was very cold, and that they'd seen an iceberg. Three villages said they were on salt water bodies, and that the fishing was excellent. A man from here, what had Harry called him? Chow? Or someone who sounded a lot like him, talked about the possibility of the gate having been damaged, and how it could be two years, or more if there were construction delays, before the new gate was finished. That brought a storm of comments from everywhere. Chow commented that everyone ought to be especially cautious around the mentally unstable 'gods' and that when the gate was open they ought to arrest the gods and send them back. That increased the storm. Few people spoke in defense of the gods. Chris finally elbowed his way to the radio.

"Do you approve of slavery? You think the way you were treated was harsh?
Exiled because of a few engineered genes to keep you healthy? These sarcastically named gods were legally not human. They had no civil rights. They were property. They were used for experiments. Raped. Murdered. Drugged. They had brain implants as if they were animals in an experiment. They escaped.

"And maybe they
were
necessary for the operation of the Gates, but nothing,
nothing
, excuses the way they were treated. You don't like it here? Remember what the alternate was? Sterilization. No right to vote. Some places you weren't allowed to drive a car. Tell me, does a person who was treated the way you were treated have a right to bitch because
these
people escaped much worse conditions?

"Of course you
have that right. You just won't get any respect,
slaver
. You are indeed less than human. You are a disgrace to the entire mammalian phylum. You sicken me."

He slapped the microphone back into Lance's hand and stalked out.

A couple dozen of the bus kids gawped at him.

"Wow."

He didn't look to see who he'd impressed. Or horrified.

***

The next morning, Harry shoved himself to his feet and headed for the nearest grove of trees. Limping, but without crutches. "Wolf, come show me that slice of yours." Before he was halfway to the trees, he wished he'd brought the crutches.

A hardwood sapling was his first victim. With a staff to lean on he started felling the s
traightest of the trees, the spell cut away limbs with ease. He passed out about noon and woke in the Mashed Hospital, again.

"That was a brilliant idea, Harry." Ginny Wacolm beamed at him. "But you need to pace yourself. Use outside power sources as much as you can, and stop when the inner power is
low. Your Indian friend showed all the other magically able how to do it."

"I thought we four were the only gods here?"

"You are, but we've got some people with a single power gene. They can do this as well as you lot can."

"Oh. Of course. I didn't think. Good." When he tried to get up she pressed him back down.

"Dinner in half an hour or so, and a good night's sleep, for you. Tomorrow you can get back to over-doing."

A couple of the boys trotted in to check on him. "Everyone was worried." Brandon frowned at Harry's head. "Lady Gisele said you weren't
really bald."

"And she said she wasn't bald either.
Then she went and cried on Romeo's shoulder. She's worse than my big sister." Pete scowled fiercely. "And I don't miss them."

Nine years old. How could his parents send him away?

"And the Old Wolf said we should bring you home for dinner. All the boys are camping out in the attic. Some of the girls are going with Lady Gisele to the Temple until she builds a house." Brandon was about the same age. Showing a bit more hurt, but perhaps feeling a bit less.

Harry levered himself carefully out of bed and took his time climbing the low
hill to the winery. The Old Wolf had pulled two beds out of nowhere and stuck them in his back rooms.

"That one's all yours. Romeau’s taking the other. I've got twenty boys sleeping on the floor upstairs. Gisele's got
fifteen girls across in the Temple. The older girls are still in that bus. I think they think we'll enslave them, or steal their bus, or something."

"We're going to need a hotel for them all." Harry wrinkled his nose. "Maybe a boarding school."

"Tavern and Inn." Brandon looked around and shook his head. "Harry, you should think about living there, too. You know you'll outgrow this room almost instantly."

"And then you can mentor all the older kids, and be a male role model for the younger ones." Dane
stuck his head in the door.

Harry snorted. "Kid, you are proof that it is possible to read too much. What are you? Twelve?"

"Fourteen. You know, a bunch of us kids have power genes. With a bit of training, we could be serious assets to the village."

Wolf eyed the boy. "Can you
gather power?" He compacted a ball of light between his hands.

Dane squirmed. "Are you doing something?"

"Yep. You're still a bit young. I couldn't do it until I was sixteen, almost seventeen. But I should start teaching some preliminaries. Meditation. Yoga and Tai chi."

"Karate! And how about sword fighting, if we're headed for medieval times?" Dane's enthusiasm flooded back.
"Do you know how to sword fight?"

"Is that why you have the black colt? To be a war horse when he grows up?" Pete brightened as well. "He's going to need a stable
this winter, you know."

"We could build stables onto the
Inn." Chris's voice came from beyond them.

Wolf and Harry swapped grins.

"I think we're being managed, Harry. So, where do you want your inn, tavern and stables?"

Harry snorted. “I s
uspect it’ll go wherever the kids want it. And children cannot have a tavern. They can have a restaurant.”