Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy (23 page)

Xen shrugged. "Basic monarchy, stupid nobles having to be shown their lack of superiority on a semi-regular basis. When we get further along we'll do the diplomatic stuff and you'll probably learn more than you want to about us."

The rest of the locals just nodded. Easterly looked back at the pictures. "Ronnie and Eldon joined the gang a few years later. Then they murdered that same Prince. These four were arrested, tried, and sentenced."

They sorted through the papers.

"And these six women as well. They couldn't execute them, because the man who hired the assassination was Prince Mirk. This one. And the king couldn't bear to kill his own son. They stuck them in an upscale prison, with Rivolte here, who was a duke who rebelled against the king. Then Lord Fidel Iron and his son Thomu got in touch with Ricardo about another assassination. We stopped that one, killed Ricardo, arrested Fidel and Thomu and tossed them in the same prison."

Hanger tapped one of the last pictures. "And this guy? He appeared to be leading the whole group. "

"The black haired fellow is one of the unknowns. We spotted him first in the prison break and apparently he's taken up raiding through the dimensions." Wolfson shook his head. "We have no idea where he came from."

"Didn't we throw you out of here once already?" Rior stalked over to the big farmer.

One of the local sluts giggled. "Tyrone don't like being throwed out. Here, now, you just drink a bit more of this and you'll be all fixed up." She was bending over Mag, showing a hell of a lot of cleavage. She reminded him of someone, with all that black hair. Mag grabbed her and pulled down with her huge cleavage landing on his face. In seconds they were wrestling around like porn stars.

'Tyrone" got his back up about it and stalked over to break them up, but Ajay and Bender jumped to stop him, and the witches jumped in and pretty soon it was hard to tell if it was a fight or an orgy. One! He just purely hated that wine. And it seemed like everyone on that World had it, these days. The edge of a spell hit him, and he jumped as thrills shot up his body. He eyed the three peasants, but turned and stalked down the trail. Later. Falchion, looking a bit pale and frail was just walking up it.

"Good, we want to shift the far side so these peasants can't find it again." He escorted her through the wrestling match. "And for the sake of the One! Don't get pregnant again, like these idiots are attempting. You know how important you are, you shouldn't let yourself be used as a broodmare."

She smiled wanly. "I'll push it a quarter mile or so. In the brush it will be impossible for them to find."

"Perfect." He bent and kissed her gently. He really needed to get back to wooing her properly. He eyed the writhing bodies and stomped off. These people were insane. If it wasn't orgies, it was babies. Or both together. Babies everywhere. What was wrong with these people?

I'll come back and stun them before I throw them out, so they can't find the gate.

He found Becca and Herrietta back on their feet and the kitchen in order. That was a relief. One day without servants, and the men were off stirring up trouble through the gates. At least they'd just done it in their home world, not one they were working in. The women fixed him a sandwich and he retreated to the library. Mirk and Fidel were there, and they chatted about how soon they should reopen a gate to Rivolte.

"We need to stop these criminal raids." Mirk told him. "For people with our abilities, more money can be made without these crudities. We need to retrieve Rivolte, he's vulnerable, the way they followed the women through they must know about the books. He'll grumble, but we'll just have to start over on another World quite similar to that one."

Rior nodded reluctantly. "The gemstone supplier is doing well for now, but we could take that money, and invest it, go for a second holding company."

Fidel smiled thinly. "I've already started. I sold gold in the British Empire, and I'm buying and selling real estate. It doesn't matter whether or not I make money—the pay off is a deep background and people who have met me and done business with me. Really, I'm so tempted to purchase shares in the Lunar Redoubt. Would a corridor work from Earth to Moon?"

Rior grinned. "Only one way to find out." Glancing out the window he saw that the orgy had grown legs and was staggering poolwards. That big horse was even there, three women on his back, no just two with a scrawny farmer sandwiched between them. Falchion was plastered all over that big farmer, and he choked back a growl. "According to Jade, Epee, Falchion, Gauntlet and Halberd were specifically designed by Teri. We need to try and stimulate their ability to open gates."

Mirk nodded. "I was away when they went into labor, I hadn't realized they got knocked up a month ahead of the rest of these silly women. I wanted them to study the gates while they were in labor. That's when Falchion first saw how they were made. Next time I'll keep a better watch on them, and employ some muscle if that's what is needed."

"Hmm. Could that be the secret? We'll need to really watch Betelgeuse, in case it's the first labor that is crucial."

Fidel wrinkled his nose. "Those women and their fast room. There's no telling how old those children are, nor how fast they'll mature. For all we know, they could age three years next week."

Rior met both their eyes. "We need to be careful how we speak of them. They are magically powerful enough to give us a great deal of grief."

Fidel frowned. "We need to take advantage of their promiscuity and breed them ourselves—use them to create powerful sons and daughters that we can raise in a more proper fashion. I've heard that witches can tell who fathered a child. We need a studbook, to avoid inbreeding, and we need to, well, Lord Rior, you are the only one of us with magic, so I should say, it would be useful if you could figure out how to engineer the genes. This . . . witch . . . Teri can do it. Dusk and Nimbus are known to the Ash witches, spent a couple of years being raised there. If they were to 'run away from this home to get to that home' could they get training? Learn how to change genes?"

"It would be worth the risk, wouldn't it?" Rior nodded. "But they're only eleven or so. Betelgeuse is a few years older, less malleable. I'll talk to the women tomorrow."

But before he sought his bed, he walked up to the third floor of the women's wing, where the three older girls lived. Dusk and Nimbus were asleep, but Betelgeuse was restless. She was a pretty thing, with soft brown hair and blue eyes. Sixteen or seventeen years old, perhaps?

"Betelgeuse, we're worried about you witches not getting proper training. Do you think you could stand to be away from your friends and family long enough to get trained by the Ash Witches?"

Her eyes opened wide in shock.

"You'd have to say you ran away from us. That you never ever want to see us again. Probably for four or five years. I suspect you'd be with your Grandmother. Then we'd come and see you, see if you were through learning, and could teach the younger witches, or if you needed to stay longer." He stroked her hair gently. "Think about it. Let me know when you've decided, either direction." He kissed her gently, chastely, then left.

I should have started charming her years ago, it'll take a strong bond to keep her loyal.

Seduce her? No, that would backfire over a five year gap. She'd either feel used, or her aroused sexuality would drive her to seek out some other man. Best she remain a virgin, with rose colored dreams.
Rior shook his head.
I can barely remember being a teenage girl.

The second floor—half the young children and their mothers had rooms here—was quiet. Asleep, bubbled . . . out at the pool for yet another orgy.

He detoured toward the pool and caught the "Hehehe!" of one of the natives. He cast haploid spells around profligately. Gauntlet felt it and staggered over to him, pulled him away from the noisy party. "Don't want any more babies around, or are you saving us all for yourself?" She threw the orgasm spell, and with her training and power behind it, without a shield up . . . he staggered back and curled up in an ecstatic ball, fighting to keep control. She pulled his pants down and straddled him. The spell wrapped tighter, knotting him into an engorged and spewing brainless animal while she laughed. "That's our choice, not yours. Remember that." Apparently satisfied, she released him, and he crawled away to pull himself together. He stalked up to his bedroom, where, unfortunately he could hear the partiers. What were they doing in the front of the mansion?

He looked down. Mag, the damned trouble maker, talking to one of the farmers.
I'll have to get that gate moved again. And Mag . . . I've lost control of him, not that I ever had more than a bit of influence.

"See, I figured it out. The witches have this gene so they only have girl babies."

"Everyone knows that." Mag sneered.

Rior nodded.
Probably another one of their choices.
He shuddered and vowed to never cross them again. They'd gotten so powerful. So . . . arrogant. They would be a bad bunch to try to fight. Gauntlet hadn't even noticed the shields he'd tried to throw up, to regain control of himself.

"Ah, but does everyone know how to get around it? This elixir, only a hundred royals. Guarantees a son. Or if you want a really powerful daughter—a goddess? This is t'one you need. Also a hundred royals. I got them both in Rip Crossing. The place to go for magic and sex."

Rior contemplated the potential effects of raining fireballs down on them.
Better not.

"I'll give you fifty for both."

The haggling continued, and Mag finally bought both for a hundred.
Good luck—they'll probably kill you.

"No, you don't drink them, t'woman drinks them. Old Gods, what idiots."

Mag, unfortunately, did not paste the farmer. But they did shut up and let him sleep.

Breakfast was enlivened by the sight of Jade chasing Mag across the yard, firing off fireballs. Mag had a shield up, but was running anyway.

Rior snorted. "I hope she catches him."
I wonder which potion he used—was he around the pool when I was throwing the haploid spell? Damn it, probably not, he'd probably been arguing with Tyrone out front.

Instead of a big dining room table, they'd bought eight square tables. With all the children in high chairs, it was beginning to look like they'd need to bump out the dining room and add two or three more tables.

:: Soldiers! There are soldiers headed for the Comet Fall gate! Get Falchion up here to close it!:: Jade's message was sharp and clear.

Falchion dumped her baby on the witch beside her and bolted out the door.

Rior ran after her, then swerved over to the garden shed and pulled out the shiny new wheelbarrow. He shoved it toward the path up to the gates. Empty, it bounced over ever rut and knob. He caught up to Falchion, leaning on a tree, pale and ready to pass out. "Hop in." He tipped the barrow and very nearly scooped her up, and kept running for the gate. He muscled it up the last slope and turned to run south to the gate.

Falchion was already half way into a meditative state. He eased her out carefully, beside the gate. Mag was standing in front of the gate, scowling.

"What do you see, Mag?"

Mag glared. "A white tornado."

Thomu panted up beside them. "I see the road, there's a couple of small trees between the gate and road. There's a rider in uniform, going slow, staring hard at everything. Damn. he sees us. Did anyone bring a crossbow?"

Rior shot him a contemptuous look, and stepped around to where he could see through, fireball at the ready. One rider, out in front. He stepped across and threw the fireball. The rider jerked back, but the fireball bounced from a shield already in place. One! Rior stepped back, and kept going.

"If he comes through, hit him with everything you've got. Saturate his shields . . . "
Damn, there's a whole troop! Are they all magic, or just the first man?

The view of the other world shrank and disappeared. Falchion collapsed, falling backwards with limp indifference to damage.

Rior picked her up and placed her gently in the barrow. He took her carefully back to the house, trying to not jostle her. "One of you other women nurse her baby, or put it in a no time bubble, whatever. She has to rest and recover or we can kiss our money making schemes goodbye." He picked Falchion up carefully and laid her on a sofa.

Jade tossed her head. "We don't need the other Worlds. We're fine here."

Rior felt his anger rising, but Mirk caught his eye, and shook his head.

"We catch the meat, you lot find or grow the veggies? I dunno, I'm rather fond of bread and cake and chocolate and coffee."

Jade actually hesitated.

"Do you know what Falchion has that the rest of you don't?" Mirk looked around curiously.

Jade frowned. "All three power sources. Witch, wizard and mage. I wonder if I could do something with one of you mages . . . "

Mag grinned. "And trust your whole mind and essence to us?"

Jade scowled at him, narrow eyed. "Trust a baby rapist? Not likely." She switched her scowl to Rior. "Betelgeuse has been doing a lot of fast time, but she's still too young for these men to be plying her with potions." She rubbed her fingers, sparks crackling. "If I catch you even thinking about trying that again . . . "

So much for my plans for Betelgeuse. Mag, you stupid little cock.
Rior stepped in close to Mag. He had never used this level of compulsion spell. But he'd—she'd—been well trained. It slipped under Mag's mental shields and wrapped his mind, not quite completely. The heart still beat, the lungs still breathed, but the mind belonged to . . . Rior stepped down and handed it to Jade.

"Don't torture him, just be cold and make use of him."

Jade nodded absent mindedly and turned toward the gate hill. He nudged Mag's body that direction, finally sat him in the wheelbarrow and followed the path back to the gate clearings. She walked first to the northernmost one and sat down beside it. Rior shifted Mag to within reach. She said not a word to anyone just touched Mag's power, sucked it away and turned to stare at the glowing circle for a long time. She stood abruptly, walked to the next one, just gave it a glance and nod.

At the first empty clearing she sat again. Took Mag's hand and stared for a long time. Broke into a sweat and suddenly white blossomed and twisted.

Rior looked around. Ajay, Franc, Bender and Hat were watching sullenly. Bender scowled, but his attempted glare slid away. The other spectators were hanging further back. He eyed the grubby field. Snow in the furrows, everything was dead and frozen. There was a road, and another field. Some buildings off to the left half a mile. "I hope those are barns, they look too primitive for people to live in them."

Jade pulled herself out of the meditation, and looked at the gate. Stepped through. Rior clenched his teeth and sent the men through with her.

He slowly released his grip on Mag's mind and will. The Islander jerked, glassy eyed, away from Rior. "If you do that again, if you ever do that again I will kill . . . " his eyes rolled up in his head and he fainted.

Rior checked Mag's pulse, then stepped through the gate. The wind was icy, and looking around he could see the crude mud brick huts, the defensive walls. To the north, a glittering line.

"The great northern ice." Jade nodded toward the glitter. "It is very far south. We might manage to pick up some peasants to work the fields, if you'd like."

"Indeed. And while I love the seacoast, a farming village would do better up that river valley south of us."

Jade nodded. "I'll set up a corridor. We can move the peasants we want through the gate and right into the corridor to the valley." She turned and walked back through the gate. Rior followed, and the sullen Islanders trailed behind. Rior let them haul Mag back to the mansion.

Rior made himself comfortable in the library, beside an open window directly above the dining room. He didn't even need to use magic to eavesdrop.

Mag was conscious and sullen. Getting a minimal amount of sympathy.

"You can't tell how old any of the witches are. She's got boobs, so, I figured she was old enough. It wasn't like I raped her."

"No you just gave her some unknown potion you bought from some country bumpkin—and thank the old gods they all went home before Falchion closed the gate!" Thomu sounded pissed. "We can't just bring a bunch of strangers into our home. We haven't seen Rior face to face with a Comet Fall witch or wizard, but perhaps you'd better think about just how powerful he is. He took Mag and used him without so much as breaking a sweat. Didn't he, Mag? Was it because you aren't well enough trained, or is it because Rior has different genes and is very well trained. Maybe the next time Rior says something is a bad idea, maybe you ought not turn around and do exactly that."

"You're not magic. We don't have to listen to you." That sounded like Franc.

"Yeah, well, you lot had your noses out of joint over the women being busy with new babies—so all you can think to do is get six more women pregnant? That'll be thirty-seven freaking babies. The women are all going to be too tired to fuck you."

"Ha! Drink this Pretty Boy!" There were some thumps and thuds, a frisson of nearby magic. Choking noises.

"He can't swallow while you have him paralyzed." Epee sounded indifferent.

A bit more thrashing, and sputtering. Thomu sounding pissed. "What was that?"

"A hex. Just what you need."

"Jade, we've had our differences, but you were right all along to control your pyramid, and slowdown the births." Thomu sounded stiff.

"It's not her pyramid."

Oh ho! Teri was feeling threatened.

"Teri, you may be technically the leader, but you never do anything but keep everyone else down. This needs to stop." Sunset was getting into the cat fight.

"Right. And Lord No-power has no right to an opinion on this matter, right Sister?" Sunset was backing up her sister witch.

"Well it looks like, thanks to Mag, I'll be a Waning Half next year. So it damn well may be my pyramid." Jade sounded a bit savage about it.

"I'm
years
ahead of you, Jade."

"Well,
Elder Sister
. I'd recommend you wait a couple of weeks before calling a meeting of the Pyramid, so everyone can all recover from childbirth enough to walk up the hill." Smokey sounded pissed.

"Now, I'm going to ride down to the river valley south of here, and anchor a corridor. Anyone want to come?" Jade sounded smug. As well she might.
She can open gates, and Teri can't. She can do whatever she wants to with Mag, and he knows it.
That broke up the meeting down there, and Rior moved to his more usual seat to finish reading the history of the World where the British Flag never bowed.

Whoops from the front of the house drew him out, though, and he joined the rest of them in the pasture, admiring the two foals that had apparently been born last night.

"Both colts! Excellent! I don't suppose you did anything intelligent like breeding them to two different stallions?" Thomu was grinning.

Epee glared. "I don't suppose you did anything intelligent like breeding any of the other mares."

Thomu stiffened but turned away to admire the wobbly angular creatures. Rior didn't see much to admire, but presumably the Comet Fall people did. Mirk walked up and eyed the foals. "Good looking foals. With luck one will be good enough to use at stud. Those are both pretty good mares."

"Perhaps you'd get hybrid vigor, breeding with a completely different gene pool." Rior suggested. "You should look into buying a stallion in the British Empire. One of those race horses, perhaps?"

Fidel swapped looks with Thomu and they both nodded.

Mirk stood up and swept the group with a gaze that caught their attention. "Excellent idea, Lord Rior. As is your idea to transplant some farmers." He looked around at the younger men. "Now, listen up. That new world looks cold and grim. We shouldn't have too many problems persuading them to come, but you have to act responsibly, not like wolves given care of a flock of sheep. You are Lords. That means no rape. You've got all the women you need up here, and frankly I don't know why I'm bothering to lecture you, because these witches don't leave you with much energy, now, do they? While they're setting up the corridor, I suggest we go scout around, chat up the farmers."

Mirk easily chivvied the men back to the house to dress for the cold, and arm for possible hostility. Rior followed, and the witches trailed. Inside he could hear several babies crying.

He caught Epee's eye. "Do you think it would be a good idea to put perhaps half of the babies in no time, and reduce the workload? And do any of you know the haploid spell?"
I can at least try to steer their choices toward sanity.

Her brows rose, and she looked a bit thoughtful. "We really aren't as at the mercy of our reproduction as it seems, are we?"

He didn't push any further. The witches were useful, but not critical to the actual raids. They could be as pregnant and tied down with babies as they wished, so long as they could open and close gates.