Wine of the Gods 05: Spy Wars (13 page)

Tomorrow Ajha'd probably be arranging cargo ships to take the Military personnel and equipment down to Discordia. Then they'd head for the Kingdom of the West. He hunched his shoulders uncomfortably, feeling like he ought to be in five places at once. They needed to constantly monitor the political balance here. Pax was especially troubling, as he was already assisting the Auralians on raids into the
Kingdom of the West. If they weren't careful, they could be blind-sided by a war with a polity they hadn't studied yet. Pax's provocations were one of the more outstanding uncontrolled factors. Their lack of knowledge about the local magic was another.

The a
mbassador may have felt the same. They were immediately ordered to Karista, the capital of the Kingdom of the West, to study the native magic where it was rumored to be more common.

22 Hija 1363 / fall 1361 Local

Karista, capital city of the Kingdom of the West, Target World Forty-two

Ajha savored the clean cold ocean air and watched the approaching shore. It had been easy to get used to the Auralian dialect, half English, half Spanish with an Arabic word tossed in now and then. Since the Multitude's language was a mixture of Arabic, Spanish and English in diminishing quantities the new mix had been easy to pick up. But the Kingdom of the West had a different mix in its roots, and they'd spent the voyage practicing what was claimed to be the local accent in the northern dialect, which was nearly all English derived. It made him homesick. His Mother refused to speak anything but English in her home. Keeping to the correct accent had proven to be difficult. Softening the final r, contracting "the" into the article, and generally running words together.

Idre and Egto climbed the ladder up from the accommodations below. Egto was still arguing. ". . . we could have been visiting Auralians. They have regular trade and plenty of people move back and forth. No need to practice this One bedamned accent."

Ajha ignored the grousing and watched the crew as they trimmed the sails and the helmsman turned them more directly into the bay. He hoped that they would finally find more evidence of magic, up here. The local agent, a deep mole who'd been here since shortly after the discovery had reported a magical battle between the church of Ba’al and “witches.” The Princess had confirmed it through a connection she'd established, and then there was the battle with the Earth forces. Lots of solid reports of extant magic.

They had a good shot at finding the local magic, finding out about how it was inherited, how it was taught, how it controlled, or was controlled by, the government. Ajha took a deep breath of the crisp air. "This is going to be an excellent assignment."

Egto snorted. "Well, it seems we'll have good weather, at least. Beyond that it's hard to say."

Idre nodded. "I've heard this Agent is . . . opinionated and not likely to suffer fools."

"Then we'd best not act like fools. We'll do literature and newsprint searches, and if needed, travel t'find t'local magic centahs." Ajha grinned. "Hopefully lots of travel."

"Down, Puppy. Pretend to be serious and studious." Egto frowned reprovingly.

Idre nodded grimly. "Remember to not make assumptions about the natives. T'natives. Stay tucked up and shielded."

Ajha nodded agreement. They'd be out here alone, without backup apart from, perhaps, the Post Head. Antagonizing him would not be a good idea.

"I've heard t'girls are pretty loose, up here." Wink sounded hopeful.

The bay was the largest on this coast, and the City of Karista, capital of the Kingdom, was located on its southeastern reaches. He could see the fishing boats, and all the islands spotted along both shores. Their ship cleared a large clanging buoy and heeled to starboard. The City came into view, climbing up hills from the long wharves that lined the shore.

The first mate dropped down to the main deck and nodded politely to them. "See the two tallest hills? That's the Council Hall on the left and Royal Palace on the right." He ran an approving eye over the crew, both on deck and in the rigging, taking in sail. The Auralian ship had been purchased by the early exploration teams, improved and updated. It was manned by natives they considered reliable. And, Ajha had noted, very competent sailors. "We'll be docking in just a few minutes, if you'd like to get your gear."

Ajha took the hint to get out of his way, and dropped down the ladder. He was already packed, and fidgeted a bit before gathering up his two leather satchels and heading back up. The Garavette was just coasting up to the wharf and stopped at the kiss of the cushioning sacks that hung down to protect her sides. Ropes were tossed and tied off. The Customs man hustled over the plank, stamped their papers perfunctorily and wished them a pleasant visit, before turning to the waiting merchants with the cargoes to be tallied.

Ajha staggered on the solid wharf and tried to not show it. A wiry old man snorted his amusement. "Hope you lot can walk two miles. I'm not paying for a wagon. I could buy a horse for what these robbers charge to haul freight." The faint glow he'd allowed to show disappeared, and he turned and walked away, so closed up Ajha wouldn't have known he was there without visual evidence.

The ground steadied, or their brains remembered how to deal with unmoving ground, and they kept up handily as the old man wound his way through wagons and horses to a decrepit green warehouse two streets uphill from the wharves.

The warehouse contained nothing but a few crates, and a huge bale of wool. A desk and two chairs by the door served as an office. There were rooms in the loft. Above the front door, windows looking out over the bay, and a small telescope. No doubt the Post Head had a good grasp on what and how much was coming and going.

"Throw your stuff in the last three rooms, I need to check for more news. The science team
detected something this morning that might have been a low powered scrambled signal."

"Signal? The Earthers?"

"Who else? We need to locate all their bases. They have a 'Native Affairs' team, here. Just pathetic, although some might find them amusing. I have some locals who keep track of them for me." He climbed the stairs into an open section that hosted a couch, two chairs, a table with a single chair, a nook for cooking and a counter top of wooden planks.

"We probably need a team to keep an eye on
their gate. It's difficult, because of the remoteness. No native towns in Asia to hide in." Idre backed away as the Post Head stopped and grabbed the rough countertop.

The counter top lifted and tilted backwards, displaying a modern communication setup.
He tapped a red light, and the Princess's voice sounded. "Communications decoded. A report from a diplomatic mission to their superior. Location is most probably in the Karista area, now. They are moving to the Cove Islands. All Teams are to consider means of detecting Earthers in their locations, and cleaning them out if found. We have decided to eliminate their presence everywhere outside their immediate gate location. Post head Usse, if you can find them before they leave, a slow acting poison so they have left your region might be the best method, but I leave that to your discretion. Your anonymity is more important than their elimination."

Usse grinned fiercely. "Now things will get interesting. If the Earther's leave immediately, they'll be safe. Unless one stays behind. Last year they had both government and corporate people here. I'll have to be subtle. But By Pure Chance it would be satisfying to beat them openly and kick them off our Target World."

Ajha wrinkled his nose. "The intercepts were clear that the Army interpreted the local magic as Oner tech. Surely they passed that on to the diplomats and the company employees? Don't they co-operate?" Ajha felt the depth of his own inexperience yawning beneath his feet. He'd studied a lot about Earth, but he was ignorant of something this basic.

The Post Head snorted. "They’re human. Most likely they co-operate except when they're competing. I'd bet the
diplomats got snobby with the Army, and now the Army's getting its revenge by not telling them critical information. Otherwise they'd have better encryption, and microsqueal it, so we'd be less likely to detect it."

Idre nodded. "So we don't know if they are watching for us, or not."

Usse shook his head. "Act as if they are aware of us. Personally, I'm surprised they didn't just send in the full strength of the army this year. But as late as it's getting, I suspect nothing will happen until next spring. They have some sort of land route through gaps in the ice cap, but it can't possibly be useable during the winter."

Ajha rubbed his nose. "Do you have contacts in the government here? If not, we could probably initiate some while we're in town."

Usse tipped his head and studied Ajha with a predatory glitter in his eyes. "Moles don't do anything so noticeable as have contacts in government. I gossip with people who know people in government. What do you have in mind?"

"I've heard they have a University here. Their version. I was wondering about taking classes there. Or at a minimum, hanging about and acting like
a student. I expect all the nobles and younger members of the royal family attend. Do you have a list of the noble families and the king's relatives?"

"Humph. That's actually fairly practical. Long term, certainly, and through meeting the students' fathers, possibly short term as well. Information Teams must be getting better. But you'll have to start at the City College, which is for the commoners, as they count them here.” The old man snickered, probably at their expressions. Oners being accounted commoners! “Do well enough and you can be admitted to the University next year. I'll ask the Princess if I may keep you long enough for that. In the mean time, I've kept files of all the instances of magic I've heard or read about. Most of it involves Ba'al, a rather unsavory god, whose church was outlawed about six years ago."

"I wondered about that. Ba'al is an ancient name for a variety of heretic gods, four or five thousand years ago. Practically a generic name for 'Evil God.' It's not on the list of the Thirteen Gods these people believe in." Idre frowned.

Usse curled a lip and opened the door of the second room. "Have a good read." He waved them in and walked away.

Idre walked in and stopped. Egto shouldered past and stopped as well. Ajha nudged Idre forward, then stared at all the boxes.

Idre sighed. "Well, they're dated, and labeled Ba'al and Other. Usse's been here for thirty years? By the, er, Pure Chance. Let's start with the last ten years, shall we? How much information is in each category . . . umm, mostly Ba'al. Egto, you go for other, and Wink, the kid and I will sort out Ba'al."

Even with just a third of the information under consideration, it was a daunting task. Usse subscribed to a large number of newspapers, both foreign and domestic.

Ajha took a break after an hour, and wandered down the hall to eye the kitchen, and the stores of food. Beans. Rice. Clear glass jars of vegetables.

"I hope you lot can deal with primary foods. No reformulators here." Usse looked grimly amused. "You should take a stroll to the market. Three streets south, then ten blocks west. I trust you have local coinage?"

"Yes, we went to a money changer before we left Fascia. Perhaps I should shop for dinner?" Ajha wondered suddenly wh
at this man would eat, not to mention his companions' tastes. They'd complained a bit about some of the meals they'd gotten in Fascia, and tended to stick to the breads and vegetables. And that had been stuff they hadn't seen until it was cooked and served. He'd tried primitive cooking in scouts . . .

Well, they couldn't send him home now. He grinned and headed for his luggage and money.

Thirteen blocks, in this hilly city, weren't as easy as he'd expected. And the naked-to-the-air meat market a bit alarming. Everything looked appallingly fresh.

"Nice fresh chicken, young man? It was clucking two hours ago." He smiled stiffly and turned away. He really didn't want to think of his food as a live animal.

"Eggs, fresh eggs. Twelve points a dozen." That sounded better, and he fished out a handful of coins. "You must be new, with that shirt. Auralian, are you? Here, luv, that's a crown. And two pennies and here's your eggs."

The larger coin had a ten pointed crown stamped on it; apparently penny and point were used interchangeably. A string of garlic caught his eye, and he had to have onions. He wound up with a miscellany of fresh vegetables and too much fruit. He also bought a canvas bag large enough to hold most of it. On the way out, he waffled and bought a loop of sausage. No telling what was in it, but that wasn't all bad.

Egto accused him of going native, but ate his sausage and corn on the cob anyway.

Late Fall 1361

Cific Ocean

Oscar climbed the rigging of the tall ship and savored the sea breeze. Their close and regular contact with the Oners in Fascia had resulted in their reassignment to mapping duties in the Navy. General Rufi had been of the opinion that a year or more of absence would make their recognition as "that butcher and cook" less likely.

Rufi'd enjoyed their reports on the arguments and lack of co-operation between Pax and the Oners, and appreciated that the Amma was clearly keeping his options open. "He may kick the Oners out yet."

So, here they were back in the middle of rolling hills of deep blue water. Quite apart from his love of the ocean, they were headed south as winter set in. While Karista froze, they would be in the tropics. Life was good.

Or would be until the Oners and A
uralia attacked Verona.