Wine of the Gods 03: The Black Goats (46 page)

"He has a sword right through him."
Oscar blushed to have stated something so obvious.

Rufi looked over the marines, "Who's in charge?"

Some quick examinations and a tough sergeant stepped out, "Looks like the admiral is the only officer surviving. Whatever that stuff is, I figure you better pull the sword while its still working."

Rufi nodded, but when he reached for the sword, the
sergeant stopped him.

"I'd better do it." He put hand to the grip and pulled it with a single smooth motion, releasing another flood of blood.

Bran dribbled more watered wine into the admiral's mouth, and the bleeding slowed, stopped.

Rufi straightened and surveyed the growing crowd outside the shield. "What the hell do we do now?" he muttered.

"Begging your pardon sir," the marine sergeant spoke, "Food, water and rest."

"Spoken like sergeants all over the World. Do it."

***

"Wh
y can't we go down there?" The corporal twitched and fiddled.

"Because we're the back up, we're what saves the Masters if those witches down there rest long enough to regain their powers." Jin twitched a little himself. "And because we were ordered to stay here."

He had his century spread out, covering the most obvious ways up the mountain, but what if someone went wide around? He stared back at the farmer's field where whatever crop had been planted, the harvest had been too damn many lives already. Fortunately the Sea King's Marines weren't trained to battle cavalry charges. Only the Western troops had shown training in using the pike to break a charge. But even so the marines had taken out more than twice their number.

There probably weren't more than two dozen horses
left down there, and that included General Inetricovski and the officers of the First Foot. The General had half his men surrounding what must be a magical bubble protecting the witches. The rest were taking down the bank and filling the ditch, combined burial for the dead and removing the barriers.

There really wasn't any reason to be so worried. But all Jin really wanted to do was hunker down and cower in terror.

"All right. Quiet down. Squad leaders, rotate half your people out for some down time. Pass those orders down the line." He surveyed up slope and around. His people were
fine
.  A flash behind him, a searing pain on his back, he jerked around, diving down, covering his eyes, then all was dark, or at least less blindingly lit. His watering eyes registered a sheet of fast dimming light covering a huge area, cooling past red, leaving an after image of blinding white with a dot in it.

The Witches bubble, of course. There was no doubt in his mind that everyone
closer to that flash was blind, if not dead. He touched the exposed skin on the back of his neck. Burned.

His troops were yelling. He raised his own voice. "Quiet, now. QUIET." And they trusted him and shut up, blind faces turning his way. "If you cannot see, close your eyes and sit down right where you are." About three-fourths of his people sat down.
Oh Crap
.

"Good. Now, we are going to assume that that was the witches, and that they are going to come this way. We are not in good fighting condition until you lot get your vision back, so we are going to drop all of these trees and move to our second positions up hill. If you are a tree cutter and can see, stay here. If you are not a tree cutter, grab someone who can't see and take them up the hill. Any one who can sort of almost see, follow them."

He took a deep breath, "Now. Go."

"Tree cutters, as soon as your area is clear, take them down." Old Gods, he hoped he was sounding as confident as these men needed to hear. People were shuffling slowly up hill, and he grabbed
the corporal and turned him around. "That way, Jek." He shifted people, moved them twenty feet, pointed them the right way, and trees started crashing down behind him. His right flank was completely clear of everyone but the tree cutters. They must have been angled just enough to not be facing that magical fire.

Fire.

Wizards did Fire, not Witches. Didn't they?

"All right cutters, the right flank is clear except for yourselves, take it down." He returned to the center and shifted people further up hill. "Center is clear, drop all of them" Left flank. Still people squatting there, blind faces showing hard controlled panic. "All right left flank, we need to get moving, everyone up. You, put your hand on this shoulder and you put yours here. Up we go. If you can tell which way I'm going, follow, if you can sort of see, help someone else. We need to drop these trees fast." He cleared them as fast as possible, and then helped the few cutters. The Sun was low and straight in his eye when he tried to see what was going on out on the flats. He turned away and headed uphill with the last of the cutters.

For better or worse, the Fifth Infantry was making a piss poor excuse of a fighting retreat. 

***

Rufi eyed the pandemonium outside the shield. "If you'll take down the shield, I think we can deal with this lot."

Lefty was pale, eyeing the oldest witch.

Curious was sitting on the ground, trembling a bit. "I'm new to working with Fire. I had no idea . . .  Yes, Delight, take down the shield."

The soldiers closest were horribly burned. Further away they were merely stumbling around blindly. The hundred or so burned and blinded men were no threat to the forty marines and eight guards
who were on their feet and able to fight.

The Admiral stepped up beside him, "Rather neat about
slaughtering people, these witches of yours." He spoke softly, one hand to his chest.

"Indeed
. If I ever corral some magicians I'll take care to keep my main troops at least a hundred feet away." He pulled a knife and cut the throat of the animal nearest as much to silence it as in mercy. The horse's rider had lost his legs at the knee, but was still breathing.

"I think this is their commander. Do we want to talk to him?"

The Admiral nodded, "We may." He waved at his troops, "Sort the living from the dead, tie them up. None of that wine, for now. We'll worry about mercy when we have the time."

Rufi looked back at his own people. Ten men of the twenty he'd brought with him were still alive.
The admiral had about seventy marines left, of the hundred and fifty that had marched out yesterday, but nearly half were badly injured, too badly for even the wine to get back on their feet immediately.

The Admiral walked carefully up the bank and looked across the last fields before the abrupt rise of the mountains. "I wonder if that took out the century they were keeping in reserve?"

Rufi joined him. "They aren't in sight. If they were above that fire they could be untouched."

Glo
rious sat beside him and closed her eyes, hands open on her knees. One hand rose and pointed, up and to the right. "Nil is there." The finger rose and pointed to the high gap between the two peaks. "There is a very strong power draw there." Her hand fell. "A group of frightened people
there
. And a group of frightened, but still fighting, people over
there
, led by an untrained mage or wizard. Perhaps sixty men. They may, or may not, reach the gap before Nil." She closed her eyes wearily and Opinion hovered, looking worried.

"Well," Rufi said, "why don't we have a word with their commander about what we'll be looking at up there. Although I've half a mind to retreat and let the Sea King bring up more marines, I'm thinking that sooner or later it's going to be wizard against wizard."

The Admiral nodded, "And since we are already here, and the wizards are headed for a clash, we'd best get up there and support our wizard as quickly as possible."

Oscar found a flask of liquor on an enemy officer, and a few more on other fallen officers. They refilled, and then mixed and split the wine, dosing the injured again. The injured stayed to mind the prisoners, and the rest headed up the mountain.

The most obvious routes up proved to be choked with downed trees, and they narrowly avoided injuries when one fell as they passed.

"Trapped all the way up, do you think?" Rufi pondered, "Probably not, they were in a hurry. But that doesn't mean there won't be some traps." They veered right, avoidin
g the stationary group, and tried to close with the other foot troops ahead of them.

"If we can slow these men, Nil may have a better chance of beating the wizards." Curious pointed out. She turned to the other witches, and shortly they heard startled shouts and curses from distantly up slope.

An ominous rumble drew their eyes upward. Lights flashed, silhouetting the nearest peak.

The Admiral clenched his jaw and waved them to the right. "Let's follow them up the path, stay in loose contact, and see if they'll turn and fight."

Rufi nodded, staring uphill.
Nil is up there alone with four wizards. I hope the Tyrant is as powerful as the myths claim. Because I don't think we'll be in time to help him.

Taking a break to rest the horses and check their notes had seemed like a good idea two days ago.
Dydit practiced his magic, too. The harmonics of locations  were fascinating, and he itched to try the rest of that beautiful spell.

Unfortunately, the rest
seemed to have given Never a bit of extra energy.

"Oh, you talk a good story, but I'll bet you're afraid to come down to the hot springs."

Dydit's mouth went dry. "Umm."
Exploring with a witch is insane.

Never smiled gently and warmly. "Ah, well, I'll just have to enjoy the moonlight alone."

"Umm."
Doing anything with a witch is insane.

She was standing barefoot on the ground, wearing one of the embroidered
silk long vests and nothing else, when he got there. This pool was far enough up the steep canyon side to be free of lizards.

Dydit decided to avoid unnecessary chores at awkward times, and edged his boots off, unbuttoned his shirt. Hesitated. He could still run. Took his shirt off, stepped out of his pants.

The rocks were hot to his feet, reminding him of a night at the witches' hot springs. He slipped his hands around her waist and kissed the side of her neck.

She chuckled,
"I rather thought you'd come." She leaned back against him. Trusting and confident. Wasn't fair that
she
wasn't a bit apprehensive. A nibble at her neck, then he pulled away from her, turned her to face him. She had a marvelously hungry smile on her face, so he kissed it and pulled her to him, scooping her up off the ground.

"I have you in my powers now little witch."

"Think so?" The drain increased, just slightly. So did the return pulse, making his breath catch.

Then the pain sent him to the ground, rolling away from her.

"Dydit? Dydit, what did I do!"

He shook his head helplessly, "Nothing," he gasped, tears running down his face. He couldn't stand it. "This is, this is how it felt when Maleth died."

"Oh, no, oh, no. Dydit, you've talked about that magical traveling. About how you have to know the harmonics of where you are and where you are going. Do you know the Sheep Man's harmonics well enough to use him for a destination?"

She had rolled over and grabbed her clothes, and a bottle of wine, and now she grabbed him and pulled him over to stand beside the hot springs. She stepped in, and held his hand, and let the power flow, a huge surge and he opened the traveling box. The harmonics here were so clear, and he followed the pain in his head to
there
to the Wizard Tyrant of Scoone, dying so very far away, and he
knew
those harmonics and drew in power and filled the bridge with power. He stepped forward . . .

Stumbled over Nil's body and intercepted the swing of a sword with the outside of his leg. Deflected it enough tha
t it did not behead the body—was he still alive? Dydit's thoughts were surrounded by a fire of pain, and he lowered his head and charged.

His right horn stabbed deep into the man's body and he jerked back in a flood of blood and guts. He spun, looking for enemies, but he was trapped in a small magical corral. And there was Never, giving wine to the Tyrant. To the man who had done this to him, made him int
o a goat. She stepped over the king, wine bottle in hand, poured it into her hand.

Old G
ods. What would he do? He backed away, half panicked.

"Dydit, you are bleeding all over the place, your leg, your . . . damn it, Goat, drink. There are three more wizards to kill."

He drank, turned and looked at the men outside the shield. Orgaphos, Oundu and Oran. The Org brothers. He looked at the body behind him. He had just killed Duke Neet of Sea View. "Maaah!" He charged gleefully at the three brothers and the shield disappeared.

"Hurry up, kill him." Orgaphos was yelling.

The Goat had some peripheral view of a battle line in a rocky pass, troops with their backs to him, and more distantly, troops facing him. More immediate was the need to deal with some wizards. Oundu first, poisonous little turd of a . . . damn swords, he hated swords. A rock zinged in and hit Oundu's shoulder and Dydit charged in while the wizard was distracted, then twisted like a cat to avoid a swing from the little worm Oran. Jumped over a fire flash. After several more passes, he realized the problem, and ducked around them and charged the magic bubble. He felt the potential twitch and leaped sideways, then back, almost too fast, the Fire almost caught him. The second flash missed and then the bubble flickered as he touched it, gone and back in the time it took him to run head on into the far side, and stagger back, sit down and slam the lid.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch." H
e took the bottle and took another swig. Much better. Nil was still looking glassy eyed and pale.

"Old Gods, how badly was he hurt?" He touched the old wizard carefully. He was cold. "He's drained, out of power."

"I know. But he still has a block, I can't channel anything to him."

Dydit framed Nil's face with his hands. "Excuse me, your Majesty, but if you don't open up and take your medicine like a good boy, I happen to know some really
nasty
ways to force power into you. So if you don't want to be butt fucked by a goat . . .  Ah, there you are." The wizard's barrier quivered and started collapsing and Dydit funneled the power in, gently and carefully, and Never touched Dydit's back and sent more. Nil's skin warmed beneath his hands and he took a deep breath, another . . . Dydit shivered a bit with relief, that collapse of the old wizard's mental barrier had felt pretty damn close to a fatal spasm. The pain in his head faded.

"Did, di you jus' say something?" Nil blinked.

"Yep, and there's no way I'm ever going to repeat it."

Never reached around with the bottle, and Dydit took it and dribbled a bit into the old wizard's mouth. Never shifted and propped the old man up and he took a healthy swig.

"Umngh! All right, what's going on? Oh, hello, Neet! Fancy meeting you here. You're looking really good." The old wizard patted the corpse and laid back and looked from Dydit to Never. "Umm, I thought you two went home, why are you following me?"

Dydit looked at him in exasperation. "We were home, well actually we were out in the New Lands. And I got this horrible pain, and I used that damn traveling spell with you as the second location."

"You can't jump that far." The old king sounded quite certain. "I can't jump that far. No one can."

"It took a Hellaceous amount of power."

"You jumped from
the New Lands
. To here? One jump?"

"Look, I hate to break up a really good boggle, but we've got a problem." Never pointed at the three wizards. "Your old friends seem to be up to something."

Nil grabbed Dydit and used him to climb to his feet. "Gah! What are
they
doing here?"

"Which they is that?" Dydit spotted Colonel Negue and Bran in the group facing the wizard's troops, and women behind them, witches, no doubt.

Orgaphos was pulling power from the ground.

"How's he doing that? He's a wizard!" Never sounded indignant.

"And we're standing on
his
volcano." Nil swayed, "I got too far from mine, I can't reach that far."

Never sat down cross legged and reached down. "All the magma comes from the same ultimate source, a pool about five miles down. If you can'
t reach fifty miles across the island, maybe you should reach down and over just enough to be out of their influence."

"In the mean time, they're about to chop up your witches' magic bubble." Dydit pointed out.
"Never, shall we try that power channeling trick of yours?" He stepped out in front of Nil.

"Yeah, you catch the Fire and I'll
dispose of the power. And drop the ground out from under them." She stood up and put her hand on his bare back, channel wide open, and dropped her shield.

He tossed a couple of flicks first. It was very hard to hurt a wizard with fire, but they could be distracted. Oran, the youngest of the three brothers,  turned and dumped a hurricane of Fire on his shield, and he hardened it just enough that Never could keep up with the leakage. As it eased a bit, she reached out and moved the dirt under Orgaphos's feet.

Orgaphos staggered and the slashing cut ripped out prematurely and over the heads of all the troops, friendly and not. The stone of the rocky slope to the right glowed and jumped, popping and shattering.

"Damn it, haven't we killed you yet, Nihility! Dydit, you're a stupid puppy of an apprentice, get out of the way and I'll show you how to do it ri . . . "

Never clapped ten feet of dirt on top of him, but it blasted right back out in a fountain of fire. The witches' shield kept the friendly troops safe. The others with their backs to the wizards didn't fare so well. They yelled and jumped about swatting out flames on their clothes and kicking burning things away from their lines. Their front line steadied quickly, and Rufi cancelled an immanent charge. Orgaphos' troops settled down, a few injured, assisted off to the side, but their lines were a bit ragged, and there were many glances back. An officer was walking among them, and rather intelligently turned his rear rank to face the wizards' duel, shields up and ready.

Never rolled dirt under the brothers' feet and threw rocks and channeled power
from Dydit to the Earth every time the wizards threw fire at him, and fed him power every time he threw fire back.

Nil stood up suddenly. "All right children, I can see that I need to teach you something a bit different in the way of spells. For tonight, however, there's the tried and true, ever favorite . . . " he pointed a finger at Oran, who fell to the ground and thrashed about until he'd escaped from his clothing. The black goat shook its horns at them, then ran around to get his brother's attention.

Orgaphos raised his head and stared back a Nil. Raised his hand, and threw . . . something. Nil swiped a hand at it and threw something back, and a second spell and third. He blanketed the air between them with barely seen designs and almost invisible webs, and suddenly tossed one underhanded at Oundu. The middle brother started turning in a circle, and turned and kept turning.

Never suddenly pulled power and used it. Dydit saw the flicker of movement to the side as the black goat slid into a deep pit that filled itself in, but kept most of his attention on Orgaphos. He was retreating toward his troops, and suddenly they were having trouble with their footing. The officer gave a sharp order and they charged forward, long pikes down. But they crashed into the witches' barrier, because it was the single witch behind them that was the problem, and who was now trapping them waist deep in volcanic debris. Dydit
trotted forward, got close enough to spot melt the rock and keep them trapped. Burned a few, too. Not his problem. If Never wanted to not kill them . . . well, he wouldn't kill them. But when the dirt over the goat started heaving up and rolling out of the way, he galloped over and grabbed Nil's sword and met Oran with a single clean swipe. The goat head bounced away, and the body sank back into the hole.

Oundu screamed in rage, still spinning about, and managed to stagger their direction.

Orgaphos threw a wave of Fire, and Dydit stiffened his shield, and felt the temperatures rising as the power flooded over him and filled him and he couldn't take any more to control the temperature and he should have stayed by Never . . .  The wave died and suddenly all was calm. There was a glowing, netted, object on the ground, not a goat, not a man, not a rock or a dragon but something stuffed full of essences not his own, and the body was having trouble accommodating so many ideas of what it should be, all at the same time.

Nil held out his hand, and Dydit handed him the sword. Nil stabbed it in, and flinched back at the flare of power. The mountain shivered under their feet.

Nil jerked the sword back out, and with a negligent swipe beheaded Oundu. The spinning body collapsed. The mixed up mass that had once been Organophos Org was still twitching, and Nil set to work, dismembering it. The parts stopped twitching after the third head was removed. Nil removed the rest anyway.

"Well, that was certainly interesting." Colonel Negue threaded his way through the mired troops, kicking pikes and swords away from the nearest. "Dydit, Never, good to see you again, umm, Dydit? Clothes?"

Dydit sighed, and looking around found the trousers Oran had shed, not too badly singed. The boots were too small, the shirt shredded. Never limped over to him. The long embroidered vest was, umm, less coverage than a Western woman was expected to wear. She had a nice navel. She walked over to their arrival point and found the clothes she'd brought. Dydit stood between her and the troops while she pulled on the pantaloons and slipped on the matching peacock blue shoes. No shirt, but he wasn't going to complain.

A man in a strange uniform was frowning at the trapped men. "What the hell do we do with them? Kill them where they are, or try them and hang them?"

"Seems a bit of a waste." Nil shrugged. "Send them away to spread stories about how the Sea King's marines whipped triple their numbers and wizards to boot?"