In the morning, Elder Stow taught Boston how to work his screen device.

“I have set it to what I believe are the correct parameters.  Once it is turned on, no one will be able to touch the horses, while we are gone.”

“I see,” Boston said, and with her doctorate in electrical engineering, at least twenty-first century human knowledge, it did not take her long to figure out how to turn the thing on and off.  “But once I turn it on, won’t I be trapped inside the bubble?  How will I get out?”

“Your Father Mingus had no trouble passing through the screen back when we encountered the migrant people.”  Boston looked like she did not remember.  “The ones who were moving down into the cities between the rivers,” he offered.

“With Beltain,” Mingus said.  “Where the Djin made you think you were an Amazon woman of magic and you first tapped into the natural power inside you.”

“Oh, yeah,” Boston said, and her eyes lit up with the memory.

“You have to phase-shift,” Mingus explained.  “We can’t pass through solid objects, but we can get through something like energy and particle screens.  It should be right there, next to your invisibility.  It will cost some energy and take a bit out of you, but not too much.

While Boston set the screen device where the horses would not bump it or accidentally step on it, Sinuhe talked to the others.

“So you met my conniving, greedy little wife,” he said.

Lockhart chuckled.

“Kairos,” Alexis scolded and Katie slapped Lockhart on the shoulder.

“Well, the king is just as conniving and greedy.  Enshi, actually Amunenshi, Enshi, son of Amu.  Worse than that, he is petty, and holds grudges.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good man to work for,” Lincoln said.

Sinuhe shook his head.  “But he needs me and he knows it, so he stays out of my business.”

“Being a physician?” Alexis asked.

“And being his general.  He dares not let his son take command.”

“A threat to the throne?” Katie asked.

Sinuhe shook his head again. “Zagurt is as petty as his father, as manipulative and greedy as his sister, and he is a complete moron besides.  All that said, Gabrall is the one you have to watch out for.  He is both Hellel and Zagurt’s lover, and he has the king’s ear.”

“Wait a minute,” Lincoln paused everyone with his hand.  “The son is gay?”

“As a three-dollar bill, or don’t they use that expression anymore?  It doesn’t have the same social stigma here as in most times and places, but it is not exactly on the approved list of activities.  So the father keeps his son on a short leash, and just as well, given that he is such an idiot about most things.”

“How did you end up here?” Katie asked.

“Lots of Egyptian merchants and traders here.  They come by boat and caravan on the trade route.  I am not unknown in Egypt, and he heard about me, and sent for me.  He suffers from gout and arthritis.  I had medicine to relieve the pain, take the swelling down and help him sleep.  He gave me his daughter, like it or not, and ordered her to have sons to tie me down to this place.”  Sinuhe shrugged as they stood to walk to the king’s house.

“But no.  I meant, why did you leave Egypt?”

“Now, that is a long story,” Sinuhe said.  “Maybe I’ll write about it some day.”

“Benjamin said you were Egyptian and I was looking forward to palm trees by the blue water,” Alexis said.

“Not me,” Boston interrupted.  “I was married in Egypt.  That would make me think of Roland.  I miss him.  It would make me very sad.”

“Men in the gate,” Decker pointed out as they came to the gate to the king’s courtyard.  It was literally next door.  Most of the men just stared at the strangers.  They were all dressed in their regular clothes, including Decker in camouflage fatigues.  They all had their handguns, knives and sabers, and Decker got his rifle because he said he felt naked without it.

“You did say we should change our fairy weave clothes to local dress to not cause cultural earthquakes,” Lockhart said, to another whack in his arm by Katie.

“I did?”  Sinuhe did not remember saying that.  “Well, generally a good idea, but in this case I don’t want there to be any confusion.  There are too many strangers and outsiders in town right now, but I think it is best if you stand out.”

“You mean, be even stranger than normal,” Lincoln suggested, and this time, Alexis slapped his arm softly.

“I could do that,” Mingus said with a great grin, and even Elder Stow smiled a bit.

“You wouldn’t even have to work at it,” Alexis said to her father, and patted Lincoln’s shoulder gently where she slapped him.

The attendant in the door said they had to wait, and one of the men in the gate found the courage to come up to Sinuhe.  “General,” he said.  “What are you proposing to do about the Syrains.”

“General?” Decker asked first, and then remembered it being mentioned.

“I wear many hats.”  Sinuhe shrugged.  “But to answer my friend, there is nothing we can do until they get here.”

“But you could take the army out and fight them, and send them away.”

Sinuhe nodded.  “But where are they?  If the army goes north to find them, will you fight them when they come from the south?  Only you will be left here to man the walls.  Maybe we should wait and see where they are and how many they are before we go anywhere.”

“But general,” another man spoke up.  “We have heard on good authority that the Canaanites are moving in the south.  We may be attacked from two sides at once.  What can we do?”

“Hitchhiker’s guide…” Sinuhe said.  “Don’t panic.  We must see where the fire is before we can put it out.”

“Syrians?  Canaanites?” Katie asked.

“Everyone to the east are Syrians.  Haran, Alepo, Damascus, Assur, Ninevah, Babylon too, I suppose.  True north, the Hittites and Hurrians are pushing in and making names for themselves.  West is the sea, obviously.  It is the Mycenaean sea, the Akoshian sea.  South, are the Canaanites before Egypt.  It does not matter what kind of ‘ites’ they actually are, Amalekites to Zophorites, and we might never know.  Canaanites is sort of a generic term.”  Katie nodded that she understood, but Alexis had a comment.

“I suppose that is why so many people are crowding the streets.  They are escaping the rumors of armies.”

“Coming in from all over the countryside,” Sinuhe agreed.

“The king will see you now,” the attendant in the door announced, and everyone followed Sinuhe

************************

Don’t miss the second half of Avalon, episode 4.6, next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The travelers are learning that the world is full of rulers, and they all want something…

Until then, Happy Reading

When Abram got drafted to search for ghouls in the Aramean camp, Sari moped around for a while.  Finally, her mother yelled at her.  She had to check the sheep pen.  It was her job to make sure the pen was secure all the way around so the sheep did not escape in the night and get into the gardens.  Alexis though that was hardly a proper task for a young girl at dark, all things considered, but then she realized Abram normally kept her company, and quite possibly young people from all over the settlement.

Leah got to clean the dishes.  Nebo showed up after dark, and Rebecca only needed to point.  He looked grateful.  “Leah is nineteen and should be married, so there is no excuse and no shirking her duty,” Rebecca said to Boston and Katie as she walked to the house.

“Isn’t nineteen kind of young?” Boston asked.  “I couldn’t even dream of such a thing when I was nineteen.”

“Not in this age and culture,” Rebecca said.  “Maybe you can wait when you live into your eighties, but here most people only live to their early sixties, if they are lucky.  Early seventy something, like Tera’s mother-in-law is unusual.  I think she is seventy-two, and no, you may not know how old I am.”

“I was more worried about Abram and Sari being cousins,” Katie admitted.

“They share a great-grandfather,” Rebecca said.  “They are like third cousins, and that is generally far enough apart.” Rebecca smiled for them.  “Okay, I have to work on the sensors for the Blob’s ship.  You get your tent set up, maybe next to Lincoln and Alexis in Tera’s yard, and then you can come and see what Martok and I are working on.”

Boston’s face said, oh-boy, but she kept her mouth from saying it.

Rebecca entered the house where she had all sorts of equipment spread around the table.  She also had some pots on the floor in several strategic places for the rain, when it rained.  But her first concern on entering the house was for Elder Stow, who was poking around the equipment like a person stalling for time, waiting for her to show up.

“Can I help?” Rebecca asked.  “You do not seem happy.”

“I am not,” Elder Stow admitted.  Rebecca flipped a switch on the table and a dim light came on in the room.

“That is too bad,” Rebecca said.  “Because everyone is needed if the group hopes to get home.  I wish things in the future were not so confused, but there is no way I can send you back quickly.  You just have to return to the future the hard way.”

Elder Stow shook his head.  “These humans started out just fine without me.  I only seem to get in the way.”

Rebecca stopped what she was poking at and sat down on the steps that lead to the upper room.  “You arrived at the right time.  There are no accidents, you know.  God put you there when you were needed, and you will be needed more the further you go into the future.  There will be more people, with more, deadlier weapons, and not necessarily friendly.  These people are still your family, are they not?”

“Sometimes I am not sure.”

“But you—.”

“I have accepted them as family, such as they are,” Elder Stow said.  “But they do not seem to appreciate what I do or what I can do.  I am made to feel like it is never enough.”

“I know the feeling,” Rebecca said, and to Elder Stow’s questioning face, she explained.  “I have lived as one of the gods, you know.  Junior comes to mind in this part of the world.”

“The son of Amun and Ishtar.”

“Yes.  Amun Junior, but you know there is almost nothing a god cannot do.  Yet the gods are limited to what they are authorized to do.  Astarte, Hebat and Ishtar are all in their way, love goddesses.  On top of that, Ishtar also oversees war, Hebat oversees fertility, and Astarte oversees the family and the home—marriage, you might say.  Now, Astarte could make everything fertile, but that is not her job.  Hebat can fight like a hellcat, I know from personal experience, but she is not authorized to oversee war.  Ishtar could make the home and family bright, but she would be bored to tears.  You see?  As long as they stick to what they are authorized for, they do well, and leave it at that.”

“But what is my authority.”

“That is what I ask myself every day.  You see, I once lived as a god, but I cannot just snap my fingers and let Junior fix everything for me.  He isn’t authorized for that.  And worse, in this life I am just a plain, ordinary, human woman with no special powers or anything at all.”

“That is not true,” They heard Mingus’ voice come down from the upper room, and they waited while he came downstairs to join them.  “You have a very warm and loving heart in this life which makes me feel like a useless cad.”

“No,” Rebecca objected and reached out to gently touch Mingus’ hand.  “I don’t want to hear that from you either.  To explain it in Gott-Druk terms, your family has a mother and father.  They will make some decisions, regardless.  But then the family has three elders.  You two are elders and Decker, but Major Decker has his mission.  He knows what he is authorized for.  It is a bit harder for you two, but basically you have three youngsters, Alexis, Lincoln and Boston.  Mingus, you need to understand they are all family.  They need to be watched over and taught, the way you are teaching Boston.  Maybe Alexis and Lincoln don’t need as much watching over, but you get the idea.  The Gott-Druk don’t coddle their youngsters.  They expect them to do their jobs well.”

“All this is true,” Elder Stow admitted.  Mingus preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.  “But then I am trapped in this human world…”

“As am I,” Mingus verbalized his agreement.

“But Elder Stow, you are human too.  You may be a slightly, and I mean very slightly different branch of the human race, but you are still human.  I know the Gott-Druk have created millennia of prejudice to pretend it is otherwise, but I am sure you have seen with your own eyes how you are almost exactly the same.  Be honest.  Most of the differences are cultural, not genetic.  They are nurture, including your prejudice against the Homo Sapiens.  The are not natural.  Believe me.  I know what I am talking about.  I am Aramean in a world run by the Kaldu, and some of the Kasdim people are very prejudiced, indeed.”

Rebecca stopped talking as Katie and Boston came in.

“Do a good job, Mary Riley,” Mingus said as he escaped out the back door.

“Yes,” Elder Stow turned to the equipment on the table so it was not possible to know what he was saying yes about.  “I am guessing this has something to do with the sensors.”

“Very good,” Rebecca said as Katie and especially Boston butted up for a closer look.  “I corrected the obvious faults in the main ships systems, and I saw where the ship was coming down anyway.  It seems there was a firefight in space much closer to earth than should be.  But there was still a fault showing, and I spent most of the last ten years tearing every system apart to find the fault.  The last thing I checked was the sensors, of course.  I realized the ship crashed because the blob thought the whole time he was twenty feet or so higher above the ground than he really was.  He landed too fast and hit the ground twenty feet too soon.  Stupid.  Obvious.”

“I won’t say you should have checked that first,” Elder Stow smiled ever so slightly, but it was enough to make Boston want to hug the Neanderthal.  She paused.  They heard a scream from the backyard.  Something was in the yard, or in the main tent.  They ran.

After 2455 BC near the Tian Shan.  Kairos lifetime 46: Lin, Empress of the Hsia

Recording …

Elder Stow rode in from the flank where the trees thinned out and the sun gave no mercy.  He tugged on his fairy weave vest, a habit left over from when he wore his space suit.  He bounced in the saddle like an old man on a trampoline.  He had the appearance of an old man, so he competed the image, but the old man image was a glamour designed to cover his normal Neanderthal look.  The Kairos told him from this point forward in history, it would not do to have a Gott-Druk riding through the streets of wherever.

“My Mother and Father,” the Gott-Druk spoke to Lockhart and Katie as the two in charge of this expedition through time.  “Would it hurt anything if I were to forego the glamour at this time, out here in the wilderness?”

“Not in the daytime,” Lockhart said flatly.  “No telling where there might be eyes watching from a distance.”

“It’s not like they have binoculars,” Katie looked at Lockhart before she spoke to the Elder.  “As long as your scanner doesn’t show anyone around,” she said.

“And as long as you make sure you are covered as soon as there is someone around,” Lockhart interrupted with an unhappy look behind Katie’s back.  His wife contradicted him all the time, back when he was married.

“But what is the matter with wearing a glamour?  You should not even know that you have it on,” Katie asked, because she felt Lockhart’s unhappiness even if she did not see his face.

“I understand, and I am sure I will get to a point where I don’t think about it, but right now I feel it is stifling, like I can’t breathe, just knowing that I am walking around looking like a human.”

“I know what you mean,” Boston shouted back from the front and put on a big elf grin.

“Miss Riley.  You must pay attention,” Mingus said sharply to Boston.  “Never have I seen an elf maid so easily distracted.”

“Not true,” Alexis spoke up from behind.  “You had me.”

Mingus turned back his head.  “You were a handful at least until you were a hundred and fifty.  And then, after two hundred, you lost it altogether and became human to marry a human.”  He turned his head a bit further to give Lincoln a hard stare.  Lincoln put his hands up like he was surrendering and kept his mouth closed.

“Hey, I’m only twenty-five.  And after that bite of golden apple, I’m probably more like eighteen or nineteen.”

“Nonsense.  In elf years I have judged you to be about a hundred and ten.”

“Hooray!” Boston yelled.  “I have forty more years before I get to one-fifty and have to be grown up.  That’s what you said.  Alexis was a handful until she was one-fifty.”

Mingus looked back again as Alexis spoke.  “She is a mathematician and engineer.”

“But we are supposed to be working on making an acceptable fairy light,” Mingus turned back to Boston where he could ignore the others.

Boston shook her head.  “Honey doesn’t like the fire and light.”

“You mean your horse?” Mingus shook his head.  “Elves don’t name their horses.”

“I thought you named your horse, horse,” Alexis said.

“You say, horse come here, horse go there, and horse does it,” Lincoln interjected, but softly.

“Hey.  Elder Stow,” Boston shouted again.   “Have you decided on a name for your horse yet?”

“They won’t let me call it torture beast,” Elder Stow said as he bounced along.

“Hey!  I like My Little Pony,” Boston still shouted.

“There, see?” Katie said.

Lockhart simply shook his head.  “After my time.”

“My favorite is Doctor Hooves,” Boston added.

“That’s a modern one,” Katie shouted back, though she did not need to shout for Boston to hear with her good elf ears.  “I was talking about the original series.”

“And another thing young lady,” Mingus garnered Boston’s attention again.  “You now have ears that will hear many things you never heard before, and much better than a human.  But it is not always wise to say what you hear, especially among humans.  And it is not polite to butt into other people’s conversations.”

Boston lowered her head and took her scolding graciously.  Then she noticed her red hair was starting to get long, and she shook her head several times to see her hair move.  “You’re right Father Mingus, I’m sorry,” she said, in case Mingus thought she was shaking her head in disagreement.

“There, there.  That is perfectly okay.  You did not know.  Everyone has to learn these things.”

“Hey!” Alexis borrowed Boston’s word.  She said no more, but the sour look on her face suggested Father Mingus never said nice things like that to her when she was growing up and messed up.

Major Decker took that moment to ride in from the other flank.  “Anyone watching where we are going?  Captain Harper?”

“Sorry sir.” Katie sat up straight.  “We were just talking about childhood, growing up, unimportant things.  Sorry sir.”

“I also apologize,” Mingus said.

“We were having a kind of family discussion,” Boston said.

“You must always make time for family,” Elder Stow added with a smile and some volume.

“I mean, I am not the hunter my son is.  My senses are sharper than human senses, so it is right I should be out front, but I do not have my son’s instincts.”

“I miss him,” Boston got very sad, very quickly, but when Alexis reached out to her, she jumped.  “He’s not dead.  I know that.  I would know if he was dead.  He’s just 4500 years in the future, that’s all.  I just want to get there as quick as we can, that’s all.”

“So, people, and especially those with sensors,” Decker said, with a look at Elder Stow.  “What do you sense about three hundred paces in front of us?”

Elder Stow took a quick look at his scanner.  Everyone else looked at the caravan.  There were twenty men, and a dozen heavily burdened donkeys standing in their path, waiting patiently for them to catch up.  Obviously, the men decided that the travelers were peaceful people, since they paid so little attention to where they were going and what they were doing.

“Glamours everyone,” Lockhart raised his voice.

“Now, Miss Riley, just like we practiced,” Mingus said kindly to Boston.  Boston made her glamour so she would look human.  “Yes.  Very good.  Good girl,” Mingus added, and Boston smiled at the compliment.

“Hey!” Alexis said again, and this time Lincoln caught the sour expression on her face.