Wine of the Gods 08: Dark Lady (14 page)

Sun
day, March 22, 3493 AD

Jeramtown, Arrival

"
The chain is rust, it turns to dust." Left handed unlocking motion.

December looked around quickly, left hand still unweaving against the powerful loops of the chain.
Where did they get the power?
Where am I going to get the power?
She raised a shield, but it was strictly physical; she tried to raise one that would protect against spells, against charms and hexes. A stab of pain through her head dropped her to her knees.

"
The chain is gold, it's very old. The link will fail, the Priests do wail. Old Gods
that
one was stupid." She could hear the pain leaking through into her voice.

Left hand unlocking the spell. "The chain is a lie, it will untie."

She unwove the chain and held the physical shield. At least she didn't have to worry about arrows. December rocked back on her heels, wavered upright. She was in the black circle, and she turned jerkily to the side, back. Looked up at the wall. The direction of the wall was where the chain was closest to her circle. She walked, unwove the chain, held the physical shield.

"
A lock of hair unweaves the snare. I'm worse than Romeau, whoever he is."

Walk, unweave, shield. Walk, unweave, unweave, unweave.

"Chain of Curses, fear my verses."

Walk, unweave. Kick the sand of the white triangle over the black border and cover a link of the chain.
This close, she could see the structure, see the gap that allowed the spell to be safely handled. The key words were direct and simple. "Control the Gods." She held the spell steady by those key words, drew her sword and reached across. Smeared the drawing. The links of the chain spell snapped, and she looked around.

Looked at what had
just landed in the other circle.

The man was ugly, misshapen and lumpy. Thin hair. Manic, hating eyes. Power flowing.
A god. She'd been so cavalier. "The gods are just very powerful magic users." Just. It was clawing at its neck, crumpling a personal chain spell.

And I think I just freed it from all control.
Gotta watch how far and wide those counter spells go
.

"
What have you done woman?" One of the priests spun and leaped at her, swinging a heavy axe.

She sidestepped, circled her sword. Her shield w
ouldn't attach to the ground.
Damn these powders.
A hit on it would jar her just as if it were a shield of wood and metal.

"
I think I've freed an enslaved magic user." She tried to keep track of the priests, the god and everything around. No one else seemed inclined to interfere. Even the other priests looked cowed. "What do you think I've done?"

"
You've released a vengeful god, a god of war." He glared at her, and she could feel her knees weakening. He was pulling power from her, and she dare not even try a mental shield again.

December looked at the god.
"Do you hate? Do you kill? They can't
force
you anymore. What do
you
want to do?" She locked her knees.

The god flexed its scabbed hands, his eyes raised to meet hers.
"Kill."

She
looked into his eyes and saw a basic elemental madness. So much for reason, and befriending the abused. She looked at the priest. "Why do you want an insane god?"

"
So we can control the power. We have all of their power, and we are the true masters of the world." He smiled and sucked at her power, and she wondered how long she could hold her physical shield.

"
Their power? As in, you have more than one? What are you doing? Breeding them?" She backed away from the advancing god, circling, trying to put the priest between her and the creature. The priest backed, circled opposite her. She couldn't watch them both.

"
Yes. We pick the strongest and keep them, use them." He hissed. "We've lost this one, we'll have to breed another."

"
You know, a bit of out-crossing and a lot less radiation, and you could . . . " She barely blocked the god's fireball, it burned its way through her shield and she had to absorbed the Fire. She tried to channel it into the earth, but the priest pounced on the burst of power and sucked it away.

The god stalked closer.
It leapt at her. Striking with claws of power, shredding her shield. The axe hit the shield from the opposite side and she staggered. The axe was stuck deep into the dirt, the priest tugging at it . . . He had no shield. She lunged, dropping her shield and thrusting the sword through the priest. She kept going, leaping over the priest's body, giving ground before the god's onslaught. The drain on her power was gone, but the power wasn't replaced. She should be able to . . . do something about that. She couldn't remember. When she'd fought the fire she'd channeled power away, into the Earth. Could she pull it back out? She reached and felt the magic of the powders twisting the power as she pulled it in.

She backpedaled and compressed power into fire and threw it, but unlike the
priest, the god had a shield. The fireball bounced off to the left, where soldiers scrambled to avoid it and a tent caught fire. She pulled her own shield back up and threw a transformation spell. Horns spiraled from the god's head, hair sprouted, its loincloth bulged. The god shrugged the rest of the spell aside with brute strength. Sleep. It shook its head and crouched to spring. She pushed. It gestured to deflect the spell and men and tents toppled. She reached desperately for a bubble and undermined it, but it wasn't deep enough. It pulled itself from the dirt and stalked toward her again. It leaped and she backpedaled, but the insubstantial claws lengthened, sliced through her shield.

She formed a new shield behind the shredding one, threw a charm, thirst, hunger, umm, no not a lust spell. Tried the transformation spell again. It bounced and a soldier was suddenly thrashing inside a uniform ill suited
for his new form. A different transformation spell bounced as well.

She searched for a bubble. Pain slashed down her lef
t side and she wrenched away. The creature licked bloody claws with a long prehensile tongue, and advanced. She dare not take her attention off the creature again. Levitation, heat, cold, sleep, fire. The Army camp exploded into chaos as spells ricocheted. The other priests fled. She felt shocky, odd. Distant. Not a good sign. She backed around in a circle, trying to work her way closer to the wall. The god's invisible claws caught in the shield again, jerked her closer. Its other hand found a grip. It was forcing its way through her shield, but it had no free hands to block.

It was neglecting its own shield.

She snapped the point of her sword up and lunged, dropped her shield and stabbed it through the chest. She hauled the sword out, stepped back for a full swing and beheaded it. Warped light around herself, and staggered away from the body.

Where was the wall? The gate? The general was shouting orders, the soldiers were sprinting forward. Shield, surely she could manage a simple . . . blood was pouring down her side and the light warp was gone.

Thundering hooves.

The black horse slid to a stop, bowed low, a young woman on his back. Unarmored, unarmed. Holding her arms out. The Lady staggered forward and threw herself across Liz's lap. Hands grabbed her.

"Go!" Liz shouted, and the horse bolted, swerving under his unbalanced load, and thundered through the gate. The gate crashed shut behind them, and she heard the thud of either the brace going home or perhaps the impact of charging soldiers.

"
I don't believe you did that!" Kurt grabbed her as she slid down but he seemed to be yelling at Liz.

Someone was ordering her to drink some wine, and someone was squeezing her left arm, the deep slashes on her left arm.
"Damn, lost some muscle there, didn't I?"

"
I think that thing ate . . . " Liz sounded a bit hysterical.

"
Oh my. Nasty." She sounded awfully faint . . .

Mo
nday, March 23, 3493 AD

Jeramtown, Arrival

She was warm and
safe. And . . . really sore. She opened her eyes. Timbered ceiling. The end room in the tavern. "Ouch."

"
December?" Liz came into her view. "How do you feel?"

"
Umm, like I don't dare move or it's really going to hurt."

"
I guess that's not very surprising."

"
I only remember it clawing me once." Why did her face hurt?

"
Well there were the fireballs, the guy with the axe. And well. The claws pretty much went from the side of your face all the way to your calf."

"
Ah." She thought it over and lifted her right hand to feel. "Missing some hair. Eyebrows." She winked a couple of times. It hurt. "Both eyes are working. Ear?" There was a big pad stuck over . . . Liz shook her head. "Don't worry about it." She felt her left shoulder, stopped at the first touch. "Ouch." Wiggled the left fingers and felt them against her belly. A zinging shock of pain up the arm. She decided to not try to move it. Wiggled her toes. Pain shot up her left leg. She blinked watery eyes and tried to breath evenly. "So, how's the siege going?"

"
They act like someone is hitting their rear defenses. Kurt said that maybe the Vistans have come. At any rate, they're leaving us alone."

It seemed like she could hear a distant baby crying.
"Quail behaving?"

Liz hesitated, sighed.
"She's very upset, and refusing to nurse."

"
Stubborn kid. Prop me up and bring her in."

"
December, you are in no shape to be feeding a baby!"

"
Ouch. It hurts when I smile. Tell you what.
If
invading Arbolians come pouring down the hallway, I'll do something energetic. Until then, Quail and I can just lay here eating and drinking like a fine pair of Laaaaydies."

"
Damn right, that's what you are going to do." Liz raised her head and shoulders just a tiny bit and stomped off to return with a weakly sobbing Quail. "Don't you even think about moving your left arm. And a claw caught your left breast, but not very deep, so maybe it won't hurt too much."

Quail was too hungry to complain, this time, and fell asleep quickly.

"What time is it? Or should I say, what day is it?" December closed her eyes.

"
It's Sunday, late evening. Almost exactly a day after they snatched you right off the wall. Drink this."

Water, laced with wine, she rather thought.
"Hmm, Okay. I'll sleep now."

***

"So?" Kurt looked at Liz worriedly.

She smiled crookedly.
"Just like always, 'ouch that hurts, yes, I'll just lie here, bring the baby.' She wasn't even upset over the
ear.
"

"
Well, she's got that wine. I guess for someone like that, anything not fatal just isn't worth worrying about."

Liz blinked away tears.
"She's so strong inside, it's almost scary."

Kurt snorted.
"She's scary, any way you look at it. Now you come and eat. I think we can actually stop worrying about her."

Dinner was a savory stew, but Liz stopped at half the bowl.

"Hey," he put a gentle hand over hers. "You saved her, when the lot of us were just standing there watching. She's
safe
."

She nodded.
"And I'm going to keep her that way, damn it. Although how I'm going to manage is hard to say."

"
If those are Vista troops out there, more help will be on the way. We don't have to keep it together too much longer."

He walked her back to the end rooms, checked that lady and babe were sleeping, then headed out for his nightly rounds.

North gate first, to find Lieutenant Jenner, who'd had the command all day, and of course, asked first about the Lady. "She's conscious, she seems . . . infuriatingly calm about it all."

"
Ah, where she comes from they probably fight gods once a month or so, just to keep in practice for really dangerous stuff."

Kurt laughed.
"It really makes you wonder what she's fleeing from, you know?"

Yells arose from beyond the Arbolian campfires. They listened intently to the clash and ring of swords somewhere out of sight. Thundering hooves, a scream. Silence fell again.

"And nobody has dared pick it up yet." Jenner told him.

"
What?"

"
Down there. See it gleaming? That's the Lady's sword."

"
Hmm. Don't tell me, let me guess. Magic?"

"
Could be. Those other priests, they finally came out with torches and swept up most of their sand, managed to keep the colors separate, too. But they didn't touch the god's body, nor the Lady's sword."

"
Hmm. I'll ask the Lady about it tomorrow." He looked back at a yawn. "Lieutenant Jenner, I have the command. Goodnight."

"
Captain Alpha, you have the command. See you tomorrow, sir."

Good man, Jenner. Overdue for promotion. Wonder what he did to get this duty? Or maybe it's not
really a punishment assignment?

He walked the wall, and listened until sometime in the early dawn when Franklin found him.
"Anything?"

Kurt showed him the Lady's sword,
and repeated what Jenner had said.

"
Well. If it weren't so far out there, I'd be tempted to try and grab it."

"
Too big of a risk." Kurt leaned his elbows on the hard rock. "Tomorrow's the end of March. The farmers should be plowing their fields, getting them ready to sow." He looked to the north-west, and the cloud bank that was moving in. He watched as it swallowed the Seven Sisters.

Franklin eye the sky
. "Haven't had a frost the whole time we've been here, and it's about time we had some rain. This is fourth year, after all. We should be having a freezing wet miserable end of winter and a cold wet late spring. I was beginning to wonder if the Arbolians were using magic to dry things out."

"
May have been. Maybe that broke yesterday, well, day before now." He looked at the sword again. "Captain Stone, you have the command."

"
Captain Alpha, I have the command. Going to sleep on the hallway floor again?"

"
Yes. Laugh if you dare."

"
Wouldn't dream of it."