Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods) (14 page)

Never closed her eyes, a vertical line of pain between her brows. "I should never have left you alone to face Answer. And you told me to put all your money toward Havi's land grant."

Rustle shrugged. "Money isn't terribly useful in the New Lands. I've got some garnets I'll take with me, in case I get to Cadent."

"You can't just
go
. A woman travelling alone?"

"A witch. And I'll have Xen."

***

Rustle passed
through the village on her way to leaving it, if not forever, then at least for a long time. She spotted the Auld Wulf leaning against the Tavern. He pushed away from the wall and strolled toward them. Her mouth went dry with lust as she watched his smooth stalk. He stopped at her knee. "Xen looks happy."

"Da!" Xen reached for a hug.
"Happy!"

"
Oh good. Finally, someone else he'll talk to. I think if we travel a bit it won't be so noticeable how slowly he's growing."

The Auld Wulf
caught the boy and hugged him. Reluctantly put him back in front of her. He took her hand, and studied it, laying in his calloused broad palm. "I am sorry that I have driven you to this."

"You aren't what, or who, is driving me."

He ran his thumb over her fingers, then stepped away. "Good traveling. Safe return."

They made it over the pass, despite some remaining ice and snow.
And turned south, for Gemstone.

1371 Spring Equinox

Ash

As winter turned into spring Tromp watched the wagons full of eager settlers leave the village, while she was stuck here. Pregnant! Old Gods, what had she done to deserve this?

Getting
bigger and bigger. Finally her time came. The first contraction ripped through her belly like a wound, and she remembered wondering if the old man had ruptured her. A second contraction shot a hot poker from belly to brain, hurting, hurting, wonderful hurt changing into ecstasy . . . she climaxed and cried out and that woke her mother and grandmother.

"Oh, this is a bit earlier than I'd expected," her mother dashed about getting the birthing stool, and her grandmother laughed.

"It's her first, Idea! She be in labor for hours. Now honey, you just save your strength, try to sleep in between contractions."

Tromp pretended to sleep to get rid of them, so she could enjoy the contractions as they ripped through her. She could feel her brain opening up again, feel new skills budding, dry lessons suddenly made practical. She laughed and grabbed her abdomen as she gasped with pain and pleasure. Old gods! Make this last a good long while!

It lasted until nearly noon, when she delivered two beautiful little girls in quick succession.

She lay back, content as the softer, after contractions lulled her to sleep. As she drifted off she heard her mother and grandmother talking.

"Goodness. One with dark hair and one with blonde."

"Oh, baby hair doesn't mean anything," her mother scoffed.

Tromp smirked. One could be Havi's and the other that old man's, she'd fucked them just about four days apart. Oh, there's been that cheap officer, too. Very easy to forget. She let sleep take her.

The wail of hungry babies woke her. Irritated she took the first one at hand and popped a nipple in its mouth. The milk release triggered another contraction, and she gasped with pain. Ah, good, and another. This motherhood thing wasn't bad at all. She traded babies with her anxious mother and the baby shoved and nuzzled against her painfully engorged breast and that hurt too.

"Are you all right honey?"

"Oh yes," She grinned tiredly. "I'm just fine."

It put orgies to shame. It was better than the old man. She managed to arrange it so one baby was hungry every couple of hours. It was wonderful. She got sore nipples.

Zenith gave birth a week later, and Cost the day after. Tromp didn't care about their babies, but getting out of bed hurt, so she walked down and visited them.

Neither of them seemed to be particularly pleased by their situation, or appreciative of any new abilities. Hmph. Did she really need her triad? She'd wait till next year, after the new village was founded, the hard work done before she followed them. That would give her plenty of time to decide about Zenith and Cost.

137
1 Late Spring

The New Lands

Gemstone was
a beautiful circular valley. Rustle chatted with the farmers and miners, and talked to all the teenage boys the Scoone wizards had sired in their sweep through Auralia and brief reign over a small village in the Cove Islands, when she was just a child. They were all between sixteen and eighteen, younger than the goat boys, so she could talk about how the older goat boys' magical abilities had jumped, after the magical suppression of hormones. "I have no way to know if they would have improved without the treatment. I'm offering it, if any of you want it." Some of them rejected it out of hand, others took it. She showed all of them some basic meditation and power gathering techniques. Two boys, much too young be have been sired by a goat wizard showed talent, and she shut their staircases off at their apprehensive requests.

She made a mental note to talk to her dad and Nil about all these young wizards. Then s
he bought more oats and started off again.

S
he cut east, to avoid the shanty town to the south. Just because she was a witch was no reason to be over confident in a boom town full of men. Especially if she didn't want to add to her body count.

They kept going east and south east until they
found the Rip.

S
ome of the wizard spells the Sheep Man had taught her were down right aggressive, and she and Xen ate lizards regularly. Or at least their tails.

"Pity to eat so little of the critters, but the rest of them is even fattier than the tails, and even fishier tasting."

"I like lizard tail." Xen demonstrated, popping another piece into his mouth. "I hunt lizards."

"Hmm, I think you need to grow a bit before you can try it, my little warrior."

He stood up, as tall as he was able. "I medigate. I do big spells."

"Meditate. There's more to spells than meditation, but that's where you start." Rustle glanced back at Junk and Phantom. They were settled down, munching the grass she'd cut up on the plains before descending to the Rip to hunt.
She looked up. Late summer, and the comets were clear, hanging halfway up the western sky. They'd pass inside the World's orbit a few weeks before the Winter Solstice, then the view would wash out in the daylight. Right about the Solstice they'd pass the World's orbit again, outbound on their four year long orbit. "See the comet closest to the horizon? That's Comet Lamb. In four years it's going to cause a problem. This year we should slide between the comets, and the only danger is that a few that have already lost all their ice could hit the World without us realizing they were even near."

Xen squirmed. "Hit me?"

"No. I won't let that happen." She heard the determination in her own voice. "That's why I meditate and practice. I'll put a magic shield over us, if there's any danger."

Xen lit up. "I do a magic shield?"

"Hmm, perhaps I can teach you some silly rhymes that will help. In fact, buster, I do believe you're almost two years old. We ought to find a way to celebrate that. Then start teaching you some rhymes." She looked thoughtfully at the hot springs below, and shook her head. "Too many lizards, here. We need to find a better spot for a recognition point."

They were far enough south that the Rip was dwindling and the lava strips turning into faults and getting closer together.  They turned
south and crossed the Rip at an unusually low spot. Rustle stopped on the far side. Meditated, and gathered a memory of the unique characteristics of a big steaming pond.

And the feeling of the tea
kettle geyser outside her parents' home. She felt the thinness of the spell, the end recognition slithering from her mind.

"Damn."

Xen giggled. "Mum! Damn!"

"I've got to stop saying that." She twisted around to reach her saddlebags. Her pad of notes . . . she dashed off a quick request to the Auld Wulf.

He stepped out of nowhere a moment later. Xen dived at him, got a hug, then plopped back in front of Rustle.

"Stay there just a minute, boy." He touched both horses
and stepped across two thousand miles.

The teakettle steamed peacefully beside them.

"You make it look so effortless."

The Auld Wulf flashed a smile. "I'll be back." He disappeared.

Xen thumped his heels in disappointment.

"He'll be back. Let's go see if anyone is home."

The clearing was so quiet, so familiar. And the house so still and empty.

Then galloping hooves, and her dad was vaulting off a horse to grab her and hug her, and grab Xen. And then her mother and sisters piled in.

It was a proper prodigal's welcome, at least from family and Nil and Justice's family. The other witches stayed away.
The Auld Wulf slipped in one evening. Something in his eyes made her breath catch . . . but he only hugged her. And played with Xen. The boy chattered away at him, and followed him as far as the teakettle geyser. That night Rustle rode out, circling the village and turning up to the winery. She walked around it, to absorb the feeling of the Auld Wulf's hotsprings.

A warm laugh spun her around. "Rustle . . . "

She sighed. "I know, dammit. I've always known I was too young for you. I figured maybe twenty-five would be old enough . . . and then those plans came crashing down. Or at any rate the in-between stuff got mangled. But when I'm finally old enough, I
am
going to pursue you relentlessly."

"And perhaps I can drop my guilt feelings and . . . be young enough for you."

Rustle hesitated. "Don't go and get yourself half killed just for me. I dare say that sleep-and-rejuvenate-for-a-year thing will happen often enough without trying."

He laughed, and stepped up to hug her
, and drop her to the ground by the teakettle. Rustle sighed as he disappeared. "Should have killed all eight of those idiots. Messing up my plans for that man."

She walked back to the dark house and crawled into bed.

He brought Junk back the next day, and showed Xen some unarmed combat kicks.

Never shook her head at the sight. "That would be silly enough with a well coordinated two year old." She glanced at Rustle and winced.

Rustle tried to moderate her expression.

Never didn't say a
nother thing about Xen's progress for the three days they stayed, but Xanthic and Young shared all the village gossip, even the bits that hurt. Never was crying when Rustle mounted up. The Auld Wulf took them back to the Rip. And left without kissing her goodbye. Dammit.

They followed the Rip south. It made navigation simple, provided water with a simple purification spell, and warmth as the nights cooled.

She sang the songs of the New Year on the Winter Solstice, but it felt odd, without snow . . . without other voices.

One thousand, three hundred and seventy-two years since the Exile. I wonder how old the Auld Wulf was, when it happened? I wish they remembered more of it.

She
relaxed in the grass beside Xen, staring at the comets and the streaks of falling stars.

Rustle shivered as she stared up at the spectacular sky.
In four more years . . .