Wine of the Gods 08: Dark Lady (12 page)

Satur
day, March 21, 3493 AD

Jeramtown, Arrival

"
It's from the well over on Grove Street. It smells bad." Madam Cordes was sniffing a bucket of water.

December sniffed too.
"Damn! They've dumped some dead animals in it, upstream somewhere. Use the stored water. I wonder if Captain Alpha knows about this yet.

She was more cautious when she walked out now, watching people. She walked to the north end of the river and found
the prince above it, looking outward. He invited her up with a wave. She cut over two streets to the steps by the north gate tower.

She frowned when she saw the problem. Cow carcasses partially blocking the much reduced river. Several of the soldiers were pissing in the water, and as she watched, the Arbolian Dandy who seemed to be in charge dropped his pants to crap in the water.

"Prince Kurt, may I respond appropriately to this?"

"
Please do."

She war
ped light around herself and tossed a corridor down to the river bank opposite the Dandy. Grabbed a bubble, opened it, and shoved it mentally. Control, even at this short distance, proved difficult, but she surrounded the dead animals as well as a large volume of sediments beneath the river. And then she backpedaled hastily as the surface caved in. She jumped into the corridor, and staggered a bit, up on the wall. She looked back down. The riverbank was slumping into the hole
just
slowly enough that the scrambling Dandy could
almost
get free.

"
How was that?" She wiped sweat off her forehead and frowned at a shaking hand.
Weak. I need to recover before I do too much more.
She looked at the bubble she had in hand. Sealed it and let it drift away.
I
haven't the faintest idea what will happen to it. Will it drift forever?

"
Marvelous. I'm afraid Prince Henry's wardrobe has suffered, though."

The Dandy had been pulled out by the soldiers, missing his pants. Some of the other soldiers were still mired.

"Prince Henry? What an ordinary name for someone who dresses like that."

Kurt choked.
"It's an Imperial family name, shows up very two or three generations. I . . . hadn't actually thought of it as ordinary."

They watched the man's furious gestures and saw messengers spreading out, carrying orders.

"Hmm, that might not have been wise of me." December frowned. "How about I do something a bit more subtle to their trebuchets . . . or . . . what are they doing?"

"
Clearing a large circle. Looks like about a twenty foot diameter. I do believe they are going to make some magic. Can you do something to their trebuchets?"

December contemplated her energy reserves. Plenty of raw power, but manipulating it came from her own reserves, her
bodily strength. "If you need corridors up stream, perhaps tonight, to find where they've dammed the river, I'd best not do any more today. Unless I specifically need to."

"
Save your energy, then. When they start flinging stones again, it might be time for a raid." He leaned over and stared. "See those fellows in green? Those are their priests. I wonder what they have in those chests?"

December tried looking with her inner sight, and winced.
"Something magically bright. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it."

The priests were sweeping the ground. Pulling the few surviving tufts of grass, removing large stones, sweeping aside small loose stones. One priest fetched a pail of mud and began filling holes.

"Do you know, if we were to break their dam, depending on how much water is behind it, we might soak their circle." Kurt tapped impatient fingers on the parapet. "In any case, I'd like to get the raid over before they start . . . whatever this is going to be."

December
pulled her eyes away form the priests. "Then the sooner the better. I have a location about twelve miles out, the furthest farm that direction."

"
Right. Lady, go eat a hardy meal, I may be working you hard in about two hours."

She took his advice, then nursed Quail, and saddled up. Liz fretted, but she agreed she had no part to play in the raid.

"Keep an eye on Quail, keep track of what those priest fellows are doing." December shrugged. "Waiting usually is the worst part. We should be back before dawn."

"
You better be. And be
careful
damn it."

Kurt had his raiding party together, and Franklin
Stone was doing some fretting as well. She caught a snatch of their conversation, ". . . yes, Mother . . ." and grinned.

The scout was ready, so she grabbed a bubble, attached it here and twisted it, pulled it into a
long arm that reached out to
that
farm, not in exactly the same place, she pushed it to the hill beyond, away from the complications of the farm yard, and attached it there.
She
could sort of see through the corridor to the grassy hill; the others seemed to see it clearly. About the only drawback to being magical was that one saw the corridor, superimposed on what lay beyond it. Sort of. She backed Phantom away and waved the scout forward.

His horse had gotten used to jumping through bright circles and took the leap nearly as calmly as Phantom. He took a slow careful look in all directions, and then rode back through.
"Looks good, Sir."

"
Mount up, single file. March."

T
he dozen men filed through the corridor quickly, and Kurt and December followed.

The river below the farm was an oozing mud flat, so they headed further north at a trot.

"The Baron's men said there's a lake five miles on. It has several outlets. If they've dammed the outlet for the Crier, there won't be any impounded water to wash through their camp—but then the city won't get the wave either."

December shrugged.
"The limited space under the wall will minimize any wave. But it would probably be just as well if we didn't add flooding to the fire damage. Much though I'd love to disaccommodate those priests."

The scout rode back,
"There's wagon tracks, well worn, along the river."

"
Let's circle a bit then, stay out of sight if possible." Kurt told him.

December attached one end of a corridor a few strides away from the first, and followed.

They trotted and walked alternately, through hills that gradually got lower, and then flattened into a mile wide swamp fringing a sizable lake. They waited until the sun was lower, then slipped back toward the river outlet, and found it surrounded by a strong company of soldiers.

"
So much for finding it unguarded." Kurt muttered.

"
I'll walk down and take a look, shall I?" December bit her lip.
Two hundred men, damn. Kurt had trouble finding four old guys to be his engineering company. The Arbolians' brought more soldiers than the population of the town including all the local farm families taking refuge there. Of course this is just the start of conquering the whole country. They've probably got
more
soldiers back somewhere.

She
warped light around herself and walked down to the camp, and then circled it to find the dam. It was well done, for having been thrown together in a few weeks. The location was such that it didn't need to be high, just high enough that the lake drained through its other outlets. A double wall of roughly fitted stones, piled rubble supporting the outsides, with clay sandwiched in the middle.

She eased back to the t
roops and described the dam to them.

The men followed
the lakeshore back, and then stripped and took to the water.

She
warped light again, and got as close as possible, and sat on damp mud to meditate and feel the dam. The rocks. The men swimming up to them and shifting them. Several of them climbed over the dam and started on the rubble pile on the downstream side right in the center. She reached and tried to hold the rocks above, to prevent a collapse that would injure them and undo their work. It took hours, but they made it to the rocks of the inner wall, and pried them out at the bottom. The clay core of the dam oozed slowly until they'd worked a hole into it. Then the water could do the rest, as the men climbed back over the dam and swam away.

The moving water was more than capable of keeping the hole open, until the engineers noticed. The dam might have only raised the level of the lake by an inch or two, but with a lake this size, that was a lot of water.

She walked back to where the men had taken to water, and made the faintest of lights to guide them.

Kurt led them, dripping water and weeds and mud.
"I've put a hole in it, but I suspect they can get it back together in a couple of days. Unless, of course, those improbably balanced rocks happened to cover up the hole and make it harder for them to get to it."

She chuckled.
"The water flow is increasing. The spell I put on the rocks will fail in a few more minutes."

"
I wish I had the men to take it out entirely." He frowned as the alarm was called from the camp. "I think they just noticed something."

"
Yep. Time for us to go." She heard the rubble crashing down as they headed for the horses.

They returned to the farm a lot faster than they'd l
eft it, and jumped through the corridor into a scene of chaos.

"Clear the way! Report!" Kurt raised his voice.

"
They snuck in, attacked suddenly. They killed the baron, three of the baron's men, the two men we had guarding Roger. They took Roger with them. Two of them went for the Lady's rooms but the women fought them and kept them away from the lady's babe."

December choked, and flung Phantom's reins to a soldier as she dashed inside.

Seigal
was sitting against the hallway wall, pale but not looking too much worse. "They came in the front door, and headed straight for the room we had Roger in. Jasper and Donaldson didn't even have time to draw their swords. Then they split, some went up to the baron's room, two of them headed for the lady's room, but that Liz woman held them off with a pole and all the rest of the women and children, well, they sealed themselves up the magic room, and the Arbolians couldn't get in.

"
Nobody can, actually." His eyes slid in her direction.

"
What about Liz?" Her heart ached in dread.

"
She got a nasty cut to the head, knocked her out. I gave her some of that wine, and she was fine, except for, well, she's locked herself in your room and won't come out."

December
heaved a relieved breath and stepped over his legs to continue down the hallway. The door was cracked enough to warp, jammed in place, the door knob obviously not engaging. She tapped on her door. "Liz?"

The door flew open and December was grabbed and pulled into the room.
"Oh, M'lady." Liz threw her arms around her, and warm lips met hers.

December pulled back.
"Liz, how much wine did you have?"

"
I don't know, Seigal was pouring it down my throat when I woke up, and I want, I wanted, I locked myself in before I did something I'd really regret . . . Oh my God! Did I just kiss you?" She staggered back two steps, then spotted Kurt. "Oh, my." She staggered forward and tackled him.

Kurt thudded back into the wall and returned her kiss with interest.

"Kurt, behave! It's the wine, well, half of it's the wine. I need to check on the children, which means your potential Mother-in-law showing up in minutes."

He freed his mouth with difficulty,
"So, this is how that wine affects women? Can I have half a bottle for our honeymoon?"

"
I really don't think you'll need it. Unless you desperately want a child in nine months." She slipped through to the other room, eyed the shattered door jam.
It held long enough.
She studied the seal on the bubble. Undamaged, unbroken. She reached out and unsealed it, swept it open.

Lucy flinched back, arm still raised from closing the
door. "Oh, M'Lady, you're back! Liz!" She stumbled out of the room.

December took a quick peek. Margarite had Quail in one arm,
another baby in the other. The room was stuffed, all the children and the Mother-on-duty crammed into the corners, wide-eyed and frightened.

"
It's safe now, the guards have taken control." December reassured them.

"
Young man. You may be a Prince, but you had better get your hand off of that portion of my daughter's anatomy!"

"
You can come out." December kept an ear cocked toward the other room.