Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods) (37 page)

Michael drew a deep breath and exhaled. "The wizard X was considered such a flop, it wasn't much tested, was it?"

"Nope. And they missed something very important. Hell, you were all wrapped up during the heyday of the wizards. They're very strong magic users, once they figured out the source of the problem. We've just recently realized the potential of the combinations. I figured I'd better check your lot. A couple of the witches have deliberately had multiple power source babies."

Trump scowled. "Is that why Rustle had a boy? I heard she snuck into bed with you while you were, like
, asleep for that whole year."

The Auld Wulf could feel himself blushing. "If I'd been wide awake, I wouldn't have refused her. Although the very idea of anyone subjecting themselves to my instinctive magic while dreaming gives me the chills."

"I . . . see. Is this wise?" Michael bent and picked up Azure.

"Only time will tell. I
forgot that you have no experience with the world since the comet. Do some astronomy, eh? Calculate the orbits of the four year comets. You won't like the results, guaranteed." He turned to the witch, "Trump? Your little one here? God's babies grow up a bit slowly sometimes. Don't worry about her, just treat her like she's a very bright child of whatever age she acts. Think of her as the younger sister of the others."

"Oh, h
uh." Trump nodded. "Like Ask. I used to pick on her just to get Rustle mad. Pity I didn't know Hell back then. I expect his dogs would have straightened me right up."

He snorted. "Yes they do have a tendency to make one think before acting, don't they.
But it's the rest of your family that would have attracted the attention of the hounds, I suspect."

She cocked an eye at him. "Do you know what Dydit did to them? They're very . . . soft on children."

"Probably turned into a goat and raped them."

Michael wrinkled his nose. "Goat?"

"A sort of very large, black mutant goat. Looks half gazelle and half demon. It was a spell he lived under for eight hundred years, so he's comfortable with it."

"I'd like to see the goat that could fight all four dogs, let alone . . . "

The Auld Wulf chuckled evilly. "That's what you think now."

They invited him for lunch, and he brought them up to date on Ash and old gods.

Michael whooped with delight over Edmund's encounter with Pax. "Oh, that sanctimonious prick. Speaking of Edmund, what the hell happened to Barry? Do you realize they've got statues of him, out here on an island? Most disgusting things I've ever seen."

"
Actually he was trapped inside a reversed bubble. He looked like all the other statues. I wonder where he's gotten to?"

"I don'
t think I want to think about him."

"What we want to think about is how to hire some nannies," Trump said. "We keep scaring them off."

The Auld Wulf looked at the dogs and grinned. "I should think so. Actually, Nina has been talking wistfully about wanting to move back to town."

Trump perked up. "She'd be perfect! She's way past being startled by magic, and six babies would be a relief to her."

"We'll go talk to her tonight." Michael assured her.

Taking his departure, the Auld Wulf
traveled to Ba'al's Temple and then reclaimed his horses and carriage for the drive to the new Mage's Island. At low tide it was possible to drive across a low neck of land to what had once been an old fortress, and then hosted a small hunting lodge.

Selano
looked ten years younger, full of energy, and took him on a brief tour.

"The well water's brackish, so no one wanted it. But that's the sort of thing mages are good with.

"We're just gotten started, but the four of us work well together. The girls decided that they didn't like the way the magewife system in Ash worked, and that they just weren't going to get married unless they wanted to. So far Klyn, Hemli and Sommer have married Nic, Loc, and Tir, leaving us poor mages to our bachelor pursuits."

"With the other seven women?"

"Exactly. Life is rough. We've got a boat, but it's a bit small. Now we need a wagon or maybe even a coach. And horses and . . . "

The Auld Wulf
sold them the carriage and foursome, and politely declined an orgy in his honor. Then he traveled home.

"Relax," he smiled at Ask. "Logic and I are good friends, and although Happy may beat me for introducing them, I do believe Rufi's taken an interest."

"Happy?" Happy looked out the kitchen door at him. "Happy hasn't seen the man for a year and a half, and then not for a couple of years prior. So don't go calling me a wife, eh?"

"I wouldn't dare," he assured her. "Is Idea in there as well?" She was and he reported on her daughter and grandchildren.

Ask snickered as she passed him later. "You've turned into quite the gossip."

"Have
not!"

"And Rustle's
says it's about time all of us witches got back to Rip Crossing."

"G
ood. The Army out in the New lands needs a bunch of metal; bars, horseshoes, doorknobs and locks. Would you four witches like to earn some money while practicing your metal work?"

Ask brightened. She'd gone through most of her funds.

"Talk to Dydit. He's got the contract to supply the whole northern area."

***

Once she had a corridor from Ash to Rip's Summer Camp, Rustle spent the summer moving from one task to the next. Additional fencing at the Summer Camp. Trying to figure out the "Museum of Art." Wizard's school. Checking on the Rip Crossing witches in Ash, and working with the Ash witches herself. Wondering if she was one of them, or if she ought to call herself a wizard now. Checking that the newly empowered wizard-mages of Rip Crossing hadn't killed themselves. Then back to the Museum of Art.

She
allotted plenty of time for Xen, who obviously thrived following around on his father's heels. She tried to stay business-like, not pushing, not . . . well, she really couldn't tackle the God of War and drag him off to the nearest bed, so she tried to not think too much about it.

She almost hated to
bring everyone back to Rip Crossing. But the small village needed their labor, for the short harvest season.

Once the
grain was harvested, and the hay bundled up in bubbles for easy storage, Rustle loaded all the witches and kids into the Traveler's wagon and they moved to the old ruined town two ash strips beyond Summer Camp. They turned the horses loose and surveyed the oddities eroding out of the dirt.
If Lord Andre knew what we were about to do, he'd throw a fit.

"Hmm, a Triad of Half Moons, a
Triad of kids, soon to be an oversized Triad of Infants and a Triad of Dogs." Ask snickered.

Rustle sputtered. "Hey! You shouldn't joke about serious witch stuff like that!"

Xen stuck his tongue out at Ask
. "I'm not a witch. I can't be in a triad."

"You forgot the Tr
iad of Horses." Whoop stood up and looked around for the Terrible Twins and Phantom. Rustle knew they were close, Phantom was under orders to keep his girlfriends near the work party.

"Yeah, and Rustle is the odd witch out, not that the Mount Frost Pyramid will acknowledge that Rustle is a Full Moon," Verse sniffed at this slight to her Eldest Sister and
picked up a chunk of rusty steel. It steamed slightly and the rusty color faded as she removed the oxygen from the iron. Then the metal quivered and flattened into a shovel head. She grinned in sheer delight. "Ha! Call me slow, would you?"

Whoop grabbed a disintegrating ball of rust and produced a horse shoe.

"Can you make some Phantom sized?" Rustle asked. "His are getting thin."

"Sure. Then can I practice on small things?"

"We have orders for locks, latches, door knobs, hinges, screws and nails," Rustle grinned. "Take your pick. Oh, forks and spoons." She walked over to one of the rust collections they'd broken out of the ash. "These are so damn strange. The Auld Wulf says they were once wagons made of thin metal, and these big blocks of rust are what made them go." She started reducing the rust and forming iron bars of an easily handled and stacked size. The others needed the practice shaping things, so she'd do the bulk iron the army would forge later, as they needed things.

"I can't believe your Da
d landed us a contract for the army." Whoop plunked down the fourth horse shoe. "Now, how do you make all those pieces in door latches and locks and knobs?"

"First thing is, they all have to be exactly the same, so you can exchange parts when something breaks. The tolerance for sizes is tiny, when you're working with mechanisms like this." Rustle pulled out her example and disassembled it. "First, make one of each of these parts. Meditate. Hold the part, feel its exact size . . . "

Two weeks of intensive work and they were experts. Rustle delivered the whole load with a combination of traveling and corridors.

By the time she returned, the other witch
es had made metal panels for roofs, and even some longer beams.

Ras and Siggi were there, with a wagon to haul the panels
back to Summer Camp. They watched the witches work, and tried to copy what they were doing.

Rustle broke the process down into pieces. "First you pull out the iron—that's a bigger job
with proper iron ore, but even this stuff has sand and ash inside it. Whatever it was. Then you pull off the oxygen . . . "

They laughed uproariously at the "little girl rhymes" witches had always used to shape the flow of power. But they worked at it, and by the end of the week were almost as fast as the witches. And had a heavy load to haul back to Summer Camp.

Rustle watched them drop out of sight over the far ridge. "I need to drill everyone on making things with teamwork. You three are a strong Triad, now that Ask has advanced. And now all the guys . . . they'll probably work best in fours or eights."
And break out the books for Xen, about time to start math, since he's already reading . . .

"Ooo . . . " Verse clutched her belly.

"Or we could hitch up the horses and head for Summer Camp. Just in case you need a midwife with more experience."

Whoop sucked in a sudden breath.

Rustle shook her head. "Must you two do everything together?
I think maybe we'll just travel back to Ash, so there are plenty of midwives around." She looked around. "Phantom, take the mares to Summer Camp. And if I'm not back, go down to the Rip with Havi for the winter."

The horse nodded.

And I'm not even surprised, anymore.

1374 Late Summer

The New Lands

"Mercy?" Harry looked around the pretty
mansion. With the old shields down he'd been able to jump straight to here. "Here" being the middle of nowhere. A bleak and unpicturesque stretch of the New Lands surrounded the mansion.
What has Mercy been doing for five months? Pouting?

There was a thump from the library, and Mercy walked out, smiling at him.

He sighed. She'd always played him perfectly, and he'd always known it. "You look so good. I should think about how to take a few years off my appearance."

"On you it looks good." She hugged him intimately,
but pulled away.
Like always.
The free flowing love and mercy she could show the world had never translated into personal relations. Maybe. He'd always wondered about her daughter, where she'd come from, how she'd got her.
Poor little Grace. I saw her born, tried to be around her enough to give her some continuity in her life, as Mercy bubbled her for years, decades, at a time.