Wine of the Gods 4: Explorers (32 page)

1360 Fall

Northern Pass

Jin was glad he'd gone with the four horse hitches when they hit the slopes of the mountains. The wagons were loaded with grain, an abundant harvest they could sell either at Fort Stag or one of the larger towns further west. But that was superfluous. A cover for more valuable cargo. The garnets alone would have been worth hiding their presence in the wagons. The gold. Old Gods! He almost wished they hadn't fou
nd it. Some of the big veins of quartz in the zones between the old lands and the lava strips were riddled with it. He'd hoped for a peaceful existence, farming and raising a family. Not the sort of frenzy that came with a gold rush.

So the wagons were loaded with grain, on top of empty boxes to make them look fuller, to explain the weight of the sacks of gold
dust. A mere six hundred pounds in each of the four wagons. Really. It wasn't much. This first trip. They'd try to find a way to sell it discretely, but he wasn't about to cheat on his taxes. He owed the King his life, and his new home. He'd try to talk with Colonel, General now, Negue. Whatever he recommended, they would do.

The wagons made it over the first long climb, and the lead driver pulled the horses to a halt for a bit of a breather. It was going to be a long, hard, three days winding through the peaks and over the crest. No need to rush, no need to abuse the horses. There was no sign of bad weather, a disastrous early snow that could trap them. Jin walked the short train, noting that the horses were just fine, and he was worrying needlessly.

The brake man in the last wagon spat over the side. "Someone's out on the old road, way out there. Raising a bunch of dust."

Jin frowned and climbed the steep hill beside the road. The dust was thin. Maybe just the wind, but there were dark specs at the bottom of it. "There must be a bunch of them to raise that much dust."

"Or they're in a hurry." The brakeman shrugged. "Could be a bison stampede too."

"There's no grass along that stretch. I wouldn't expect bison," Jin huffed a bit. "Well, let's move out. Whoever they are, they couldn't catch us even if they killed their horses."

The horses walked and even seemed eager and trotted a bit at the slight down hill stretch, then they leaned into the harness as the slope turned up and climbed around the side of the first of the big peaks. At the top of the climb the road leveled out along a ridge, a bridge crossed a small river, then they climbed again. At the crown of this climb, Jin looked back. The horses were all moving easily, and as he looked out over the endless spaces, he could see a patch of the flat desert plains below. The dust was much closer to the mountains. The specks larger. As he turned away his skin crawled.
How fast are they traveling?

The next bit was a long difficult downhill switchback to a bridge across a large river, followed by a long difficult switch backed climb up the far side. They'd camp at the bottom, where they'd have water, and start the climb in the morning. The brake men earned their pay, keeping the wagons under control around slope and corner after slope and corner. They all breathed easier as the reached the bottom, and pulled into the wide spot before the bridge.

He checked horses, wagons, and men. And slept poorly wondering who was behind them on the road. They were all up early. This would be the worst part of the trip, and the sooner started, the more rest the horses could be given on the way up. They kept well separated, and the wagons weren't heavily loaded. The switchbacks, however tedious, made it possible to climb out of the canyon without double teaming the wagons. Halfway up they stopped on a flat stretch for another breather, and Jin saw the . . . things following them.

Wagons without horses. Looking across the steep mountain valley, in the clear air, he could not be mistaken. The wagons were packed with men. An uncanny army, coming fast.

"Jek, there are six torches under the bench, hand them down to me." Jin grabbed his crossbow and bolts and dug into his pouch for his fire kit, a flint, a bit of roughened iron bar and the dry tinder he kept on hand. He took the torches. "Drive on, keep going. Whatever else, we don't want to be on this slope when they get to us." The first of those demon wagons was low enough now that he couldn't see it from here.

The torches were well pitched, and the tinder took quickly. He laid them in a circle, and stepped back respectfully.
In the bright daylight his circle was marked more by the wisps of dark smoke than the flames.

"God of War! God of Defenders! Come to us, we face an uncanny enemy!"

From up the mountain the chant of "War! War! War!" No one from Gemstone doubted the existence and beneficence of the God of War.

As before, the rearing black stallion, the god glittering in silver and black seeming too large to be real.  The stallion touched down. And still towered over Jin. The god rode out of the circle of torches and studied the horseless wagons.

"Damn. They are fast." He pulled off his helmet and grinned back at Jin. "Your call is very timely. I hadn't realized we would have trouble reaching here before them."

Jin blinked to be so casually addressed by a god.

"Stand back, I've got some friends to bring along."

The god dismounted and walked out a bit and stood there with his eyes closed. Eleven horses sprang into existence, skittering around a bit as if surprised to find themselves here. Their riders reined them around and they all surveyed the group on the opposite slope.

Jin suddenly recognized the tall lanky old man.
The Wizard who killed Master Orgaphos.
And the muscular man was the goat wizard who had killed Neet. Three of the five women looked familiar. The witches. The fourth one was wearing a hell of a lot more clothes, and her blonde hair was pulled severely back and braided, but he was almost sure she was the one . . .

She threw up a hand suddenly and a projectile that flew from the far side of the valley exploded like a Sea King's thunder ball in mid-air. Their horses again tried to leave the vicinity, and were wrenched back around to face the valley. The
War God's black stallion just lifted his head and surveyed the oncoming vehicles.

The old wizard turned his mount to face the others and muttered something. The horses all froze, and
he hopped down and walked away. The other riders swapped baffled looks, and dismounted.

They faced the army across the way, the three witches together, four men in a square, the two wizards each with a woman beside them. Jin edged to the outer cliffside and looked down. The horseless wagons were rushing across the bridge. He looked back to warn them. The god nodded. "I see them." He finished looking over the enemy, and turned to the others. "So, Sisters of the Moon, can you remove that bridge?"

The witches grinned, and the bridge suddenly collapsed, no, it was still there. Jin rubbed his eyes. It was sort of there. Two wagons dove into the water before the next stopped. Several others weren't controlling their speed down the steep road well, and crashed into others ahead of them.

"Good thought, Dydit," the god murmured. "Make them question every thing they see. Never, keep that shield up. Beware fast moving metal particles."

"Bullets." The woman with the blonde braid nodded. "I believe that's what they're called."

"So they are, hmm." The god stared hard. "Nil, if I recall correctly, their fuel is quite flammable, and will be in the tankers."

"The what?"

"The wagons with the big cylinders. You'll have to break the sides, and they're quite tough, and then throw a fireball."

"Hmm." The lanky man, Nil, made a left handed throwing motion. A deep metallic bong echoed from the far side, but "tanker" didn't appear to be holed.

A puff of smoke, and another projectile. This one was well over their heads. The witches waved, and it exploded against the rock, forty feet over their heads. The rock loosened or broken by the explosion crashed down, and stopped, hovering thirty feet over their heads. Two more projectiles were deflected, more rock fell.

Jin looked down, counted. "Sir, err, eight of those wagons made it across the river before the bridge collapsed."

The young wizard was sending flicks of light across the valley, and another bong echoed as the old wizard hit the 'tanker' with something more substantial. "Damn it, it's too far away."

The god looked over the edge. "Damn." He leaned further and looked straight down. "Sisters? If you were to tilt your shield so the rocks will slide off over the cliff?" He jumped back hastily as the rocks started moving.

"Keep your eyes open, Jin. They often aren't very aware of where people are when they're working." He looked up as the light dimmed. Clouds were moving in, covering the sun. Light flickered within the clouds as they built up into thunderheads with remarkable speed. "And then there are the mages. This could get a bit wild." The wind whipped through the valley, and thunder rumbled.

The soldiers across the valley were moving their wagons, some backing up and some moving forward, getting around shoulders of rock at the curves.

"Damn good idea. What are we doing standing here in plain sight?" The god walked over the blond woman. "Never? Can you hold that shield while we move? We should get some solid rock between us and those weapons."

She nodded rather absent-mindedly. "Sure, moving up hill?"

"Yes, do you want to ride?"

"I'd rather walk." She started backing up the slope as she spoke. "I'll make a slanted shield so the triad can move quickly."

Rain sluiced down suddenly, but not on them. It poured across the witches' shield as if across a pane of glass. Lightening struck the mountainside across the valley, writhing and dropping down toward the soldiers before flicking out. Jin swallowed, blinking around the after images. He'd never seen
lightning do that.

"One more, I think." The old mage gazed across the valley. A blinding flash of
lightning was followed by a gout of flame leaping from one of the tankers. It erupted upward and poured down the road in a flaming flood that had soldiers running for their lives. Some stopped though and grabbed things from a wagon that spat foamy suds on the fire, other things were thrown on the road, the stream of fire diverted over the edge, away from more wagons and men. The fire cascaded down the steep mountain face, and was extinguished.

The mages were retreating, they and the three witches mounted their frozen horses, which abruptly unfroze. The two wizards walked back to their horses, but the young one stopped, looking at the blonde witch. "Take mine, Wolf, I'll stay with Never." He flicked a look at Jin. "Take Never's, will you?"

Jin mounted and gathered the reins in time for the chestnut mare to seriously spook and try to depart. The god had mounted the dun, who pranced and fought the slow pace the god held her to. Wolf? Jin had never considered a
name
for the Deity. The black horse followed, but turned where he could still see across the valley. They all stayed fairly close together, gusts of wind blowing rain under the shield and Never turned and strode up hill, the young wizard beside her. The sheeting rain moved up the slope after her.

The next turn went wide around a tall outcrop of basalt. Behind it they were out of sight of most of the soldiers, but that worked two ways.  The ordinary horses froze again, and Jin dismounted. He unslung his cross bow, cocked it and laid in a dart, feeling feeble and useless in this company. He edged out to where he would be able to see the wagons rounding the curve of the mountain, if they kept coming.

The rain stopped abruptly, and the light brightened as the cloud bank blew south, unraveling as it went.

Across the valley they were setting up equipment. Boxy things on tripods, they were attaching pipes to the front, bringing up crates that had two men straining to carry them. Pulling things up and attaching them to the box parts.

The god eyed them. "Never, we're going to need a very strong physical shield between us and them, possibly layered. There are going to be lots of very fast moving bullets.

One of the mages chuckled. "Moving? Sounds like our sort of job."

They formed a square out in front of the blonde. Never? Was that a name?

A roar from across the valley was loud enough to drown out the rain. A different sort of rain hit the shield, and the witch jolted back as if struck.

"Make it permeable to magic, Woman!" The oldest mage snapped.

And suddenly the horizontal rain of bullets was slowing to visibility, the pellets dropping to the ground before they hit the shield.

A barrage of the larger projectiles flew, arching high. The wizards started throwing flicks of light at them, several exploded in flight, the others hit rock and exploded. Jin flinched as a fist sized rock struck his arm. The young wizard cursed and picked sharp shards from the side of his neck and left shoulder.

"Sisters? A high shield that slants down in the direction those are coming from?"

The three got together, murmuring something.

Jin had a moment's warning when the distant sound of the wagon's growl suddenly swelled. The wagon rounded the curve of the mountain moving incredibly fast. He threw up the crossbow and pulled the trigger. The soldier on the valley side jerked and the wagon scraped the cliff, bounced and dived off the road. The second wagon veered around and charged down on him. A line of light zipped across just above the metal front section
of the wagon. Screams sounded and the wagon wavered but came on. Jin cocked his crossbow then scrambled out of the way. Bolt. Aim and fire. The third wagon jerked, the soldier on the left grabbing for something—the steering?—on the right, and it turned back toward him. He dodged again, then the wagon was falling into a deep ditch across the road. A soldier jumped forward from it, hitting the ground in a beautifully controlled roll. As he leaped up Jin slammed the butt of his crossbow into his chin, dropping him.