However, she had a more immediate problem: distracting the despots. She must be successful, because Provos had remembered that the plan worked, but it would have been a lot easier if there had been time for that one additional memory. Suppose she messed it up, and changed the future again?
You did a dance and showed them your body, Seqiro's thought came. Darius was not pleased.
So that was it! "Well, Darius isn't the one distracting the despots!" she said. "Tell him I'll dance for him, any time he's man enough for it."
Satisfied, she worked out a routine. She wasn't humanity's greatest dancer, but men didn't care how accurate a girl's steps and hand motions were, they cared how her breasts bounced. Nona could have done a better job of that, but this was Colene's show. She had always liked the notion of dancing for a sophisticated audience, and wowing them. Of course she had also always known that it would never happen, and that if she ever did find herself in such a situation she would mess it up. But still the vision appealed. It was part of her suicidal disposition: she always had to flirt with disaster. She felt most truly alive when she did that. She had read somewhere that it was the same urge that led explorers to climb the most dangerous mountains, and drivers to race at deadly speeds. It wasn't just the awful boredom of ordinary existence, it was that they weren't truly alive unless they were near death.
Actually she had come to life when she met Darius. She had played the same game with him, lying virtually naked with him, tempting him to rape her, and he hadn't, and her fascination had quickly turned to love. But she hadn't quite believed that he was from a different reality, and by the time he proved it, it was too late: he was home in his Castle of Laughter, and she was alone in her Hovel of Despair. But then he had made the Virtual Mode, which enabled her to walk across realities as if they were thin slivers of mica, and she had set off in search of him. At first the different realities had seemed much the same as her own, but when she crossed between them, people and animals appeared or disappeared. Then they had become different, with new fundamental laws, such as animals dominating the people and having telepathy. But in one of those other realities had been Seqiro, and she had loved him instantly, and believed in him, and she seldom felt suicidal when he was near. Darius and Seqiro—that was just about all she needed.
Assuming she could survive long enough to enjoy it. What an irony, that when she had the company of both the man and horse of her dreams, so she had no desire to kill herself, she was subject to external threats to her life. And not just her life: Nona was a threat against Colene's relationship to both man and horse, not because Nona had any evil intentions, but because she was what she was: about four years older than Colene, beautiful, and magically gifted.
Still, it was better to have things to fight for than to be without dreams. Even if she died here on Planet Oria, in the Universe of Julia, it would be better than her life had been on Earth.
Another blackbird flew overhead. There was a familiar! Seqiro had learned that the despots worked through animals, using the senses of the creatures so that they could project full pictures on walls or in the air. In fact, Darius and Wicked Queen Glom had watched a picture of Knave Naylor in Colene's room, when he tried to rape her. Colene hadn't fully realized then what had really freaked the man out. It wasn't the illusion, it was the fact that it seemed real to him. The despots were good with illusion, but they always knew the difference between it and reality. So her plan to do exactly what she had done had been flawed; straight illusion would not have done it. Because Seqiro touched the knave's mind directly, getting access to it when the man was all excited about what he thought he was going to do to Colene, the effects had seemed real. He believed. Because that was the way it worked, with Seqiro. So Naylor thought that superior magic was protecting her, and that a real serpent was out to kill or castrate him. It was as if a person had a picture of a rattlesnake on his desk, and when he went to pick it up, the snake bit him. But Queen Glom hadn't seen anything, so she figured the knave was losing his mind, and probably they had had him put away privily. A real one-two punch. Anyway, there had been a bug—a literal bug!—in the room that was the queen's familiar, so she had seen through its eyes. The queen had gotten an eyeful!
Still, Colene hadn't much liked the way Darius had hefted the queen's fat breast. The man was just too interested in the flesh of other women, and not interested enough in Colene's. Except when he saw her naked from the waist down, without diapers. She could make him squirm, that way, and she liked that.
There was a noise. Then a blue-clad man appeared up the beach. A male theow, by the color coding. And another, down the beach. The despots must have had some magical ways to ship them, or maybe had just used fast horses, and now they were closing in on her. Well, she hoped the rest of her party had made it to the filament; there seemed to have been time.
She waited while more men appeared and walked toward her. They were looking around, probably wondering where the others were. "Sony, nobody here but us chickens," she said. And started her dance.
Her first steps were clumsy; she mostly just kicked up sand. Then something seemed to take hold of her, and she became ethereally light and graceful. She whirled, she sprang, she gestured in intricate patterns. How could this be? Then she realized that it was Seqiro's influence: he was guiding her body. It was one of the things he could do.
But horses didn't dance. How could he make her graceful, doing things she had hardly imagined? He might make her move faster or have more power, but this dance was intricately choreographed. The human folk in Seqiro's reality were not given to this sort of thing. He should have no memory of it.
Nona! Seqiro was borrowing from her mind, and relaying it to Colene. It was Nona's ability she was experiencing.
Colene felt another surge of jealousy. Damn that woman! She had so much that Colene lacked. But Colene couldn't turn it down; their escape depended on her success.
The men had been moving purposefully. Now they paused. They were supposed to be capturing her and searching out the other members of her party, but she was now acting in an interesting fashion. They probably weren't allowed to rape her, because some ranking figure of royalty had reserved that privilege to himself, and the seeing-eye blackbird was watching. Maybe they planned to kill Darius, so she would have no protector, and then wicked Knave Naylor would dare to return to complete what he had started. But it was okay to watch her. Maybe the despot who was attuned to the familiar was watching too. Men were easy to distract if a woman knew her business.
So she danced, and began lifting her green tunic so that more of her legs showed, and whirling so that the shortened skirt of it flung out, revealing yet more. She still wore the color of the unclassified visitor, which surely enhanced the interest of her person. Ordinary theows would seldom if ever get a glimpse of the private flesh of despots, and she just might be classified a despot; the doubt was there as long as she wore the green. Oh, yes, she was mesmerizing them, and she loved it. Even if it wasn't truly her ability, it was her own little body.
But this would last only so long, and then she had to be out of here. What was keeping Darius? He couldn't have forgotten her!
She hauled the tunic up another notch, giving them a view of her underwear. She had had to tie together bits of cloth after the knave burned her undergarments in heatless flames. Did girls wear panties under their cloaks here? Surely they did—and if not, well, she was an outsider, so she was entitled. What about bras? Well, she'd take those things off too, if she had to. Anything to stretch it out until she was conjured away.
The men were staring. They seemed even more fascinated than before. Were they undergarment freaks? Hobard had stared—maybe that was it! Folk here didn't wear anything under their tunics, so she was startlingly different.
Yes. It seemed Seqiro had learned this, but hadn't thought to tell her before. The horse wasn't much for initiating things, and really didn't care much about clothing.
Another figure appeared, this one ridin
g a horse. The garb was black. That meant a despot male. That also meant that the game was over. He would use magic to hog-tie her, and then the conjuration might not work.
She hauled her tunic the rest of the way up and whirled it over her head. "Take a look at this, blackhead!" she cried. Maybe she could wow him too, with her naughty undies, long enough to give her whatever time she needed.
Suddenly she floated, and not by her own design. It was the magic. She was sailing toward the despot. So much for distracting him with her pants. "Damn it, Darius, get me out of here!" she cried.
There was a wrenching, and she landed waist-deep in water. Above her loomed what looked like a transparent bell. It was so large that there was room for Darius, Provos, Colene, and Seqiro, with Nona astride the horse. Several extensions reached down to the sea floor, evidently keeping the big bell stable.
"But what keeps the air fresh?" she asked.
"Nona is making more air from spent bubbles of the old air," Darius explained, handing her a new green tunic. "But she's not used to this, and there are several of us, so it's a drain on her."
She donned the tunic. The bottom of it trailed in the water, but that couldn't be helped. "But if it's magic—"
"Magic takes about the same energy as physical activity," he said. "Unless it's illusion. We don't want her to get overtired. We're pretty deep now."
"But I don't feel any pressure."
"Pressure doesn't build up here. It's no worse a mile down than at the surface. But we'd have a long way to swim, holding our breaths."
And Nona was making it possible to do this. Colene decided not to begrudge her the ride on Seqiro.
Fortunately they were close to the nethermost cleft of the East Valley. The lights of the tiny filament structures became so small that they were no more than a glowing band, and the other sides of the valley appeared. Suddenly they were there: standing over the central dimple. From it extended one straight band of light, which reached right through their bell and beyond without being intercepted. That was the major filament.
"But how do we travel along that?" Colene asked. "It's just a beam of light."
"Nona can tune in to the planetoids along it, and Seqiro can tune me to her, and then I can see to conjure us to them. Actually she may be able to travel along it alone; the theow legends say that those with real magic have this power."
"But this is going to be tricky, one at a time."
"This time we'll travel together. She thinks the despots can do it, so it must be possible for us."
"I hope so," Colene said, liking this less.
Nona sat up straight, extending her arms. Seqiro moved, responsive to her will, until they stood squarely across the filament. In fact it now traveled up through her body and out the top of her head. "Touch me," she murmured.
Darius, Provos, and Colene came close. Nona reached down to take hands with Provos on one side and Colene on the other. Darius reached past Colene to take hold of Nona's knee. Colene wasn't totally pleased with that, but suppressed her objection. She did feel the tingle of magic, as if a trace electric current were running through them.
The magic took hold. Colene's awareness seemed to follow the beam up, up at the speed of light, until it focused on another Mandelbrot bug far away. Darius' free hand moved, holding five doll figures up in that direction.
They shot up through the bell and the water and out along the beam in what turned out to be a zigzag course. Suddenly they were at the planetoid.
It took Colene a moment to get her bearings. They were no longer in the diving bell; that must remain under the sea. They were standing on a bug—but it was only a few miles across. They could step over many of its small projections. In fact, they had to; they were on the tiny head of it, which fastened to a larger head, and a larger one, until the body of it loomed. The head was in sunlight, but the far side of the body was in shadow.
Their own heads towered what should have been miles above the surface—yet they breathed without difficulty. And the gravity was the same as it had been on Oria. Nona had been right: it was the same, regardless of the size of the planet. Julia was a magic universe.
They walked around the body, heading east. The sunlight stopped at about the level of the largest side projections. They continued into the East Valley. Now all around them the filaments glowed, with most merging into ground light, but some rising to head height or beyond. It was similar to what they had seen at night on Oria, only now their heads were in daylight after their bodies were in deep shadow.
They came to the East Valley. This had a puddle of water in it, and Colene realized that it was the same as the sea on Oria. Their perspective had changed. They were like giants on this tiny planet.
"I think I must rest for a while," Nona said.
"I too," Darius agreed. "This is a new exercise for me, and I don't want to go wrong."
There is no danger for us here, Seqiro thought. It is safe for you to sleep.
Nona slid off his back, made a huge pillow from a thread of her dress, and lay blissfully down on it. Then, as an afterthought, she made another pillow for Darius.
Colene was tired too, but the evidence of Nona's compatibility with Darius was something she did not want haunting her dreams. So she refused to rest, and turned her attention elsewhere.
This planet was just like Oria, and it helped her to understand Oria's geography. Could there be people on this world, in scale with it? That would be funny!
"Yes," Nona said, picking up the thought. Sometimes Colene wished that Seqiro's telepathic ability weren't quite so comprehensive. Were all her jealous little snits being broadcast to the others?
No. Only the thoughts of normal interest to others, unless you wish it otherwise.
Well, that was a relief! She appreciated the horse's discretion. "There are?" she said, quickly returning to Nona's thought so that her side dialogue with Seqiro wouldn't be noticed. "Little people?"
"There are people on all the worlds, I think. Our stories tell of them. But few travel between worlds, so there is little contact. The ones from Jupiter are the Megaplayers, who left their great instruments by our sea."
"You mean there really are giants to go with those things?" Colene asked, still amazed by the revelation. She knew they were going to see just such giants, but somehow their literalness hadn't registered.
"Oh, yes. Every planet has its folk. But it's hard to know them."
"Now, let me see if I have this straight. Oria is just a little planet out from Jupiter, and there are littler planets along the filament between the two. And the filament comes from one of the projections of Jupiter. So what about the filaments from Oria? Do they have little planets along them, and do those planets have people too?"
"Yes, surely they do," Nona answered. "But those folk are so tiny we can't see them."
Colene shook her head. "I'll just have to see it to believe it. But they would be so small—if this planet's about eight miles in diameter, that's a thousandth of Earth/Oria's size. So to be in proportion, the people would have to stand, oh, under a tenth of an inch tall."
I can improve your sight, so you can see them, Seqiro offered.
Colene remembered how the horse had rendered her into a deadly fast and strong knife-wielder, briefly, as a demonstration of his potential power over her body. In fact he had done it in another way just recently, enabling her to dance effectively. "Okay. Let's do it."
They left Darius and Nona resting, and Provos sitting there with her own future memories, and walked back to the shadow's border. It was good to be alone with Seqiro again, however briefly.
Colene lay down on the ground, realizing that it was furry rather than hard. She had assumed that this was moss. But now she realized that it was something else.
She focused on a tiny clear patch between stands of moss. Her vision became amazingly sharp. It was as if she were using a magnifying glass or even a microscope, and turning up the power.
The edge of the moss resolved itself
into a stand of trees. The bare patch became a pasture. To the other side of the pasture, a speck of sand became a perfectly formed little house. This was indeed a landscape!
She squinted, concentrating. The pasture clarified. There were cows in it. She traced the route of the road passing by the house, and discovered a horse running along it. On the horse was a man.
"Like Gulliver's Travels," she murmured. Then, to clarify the reference for Seqiro, she amplified her spot memory: a man named Jonathan Swift had written a satire of the politics and customs of his time, phrased as Gulliver's voyages to the land of Lilliput with its six-inch-tall folk, and Brobdingnag with its giants. One of the voyages had been to a land of intelligent and refined horses. "I've been there too," she said. "That's where I found you, Seqiro."
The horse (the tiny one) galloped to the house. The man dismounted almost before the horse came to a stop, and dashed into the house. In a moment the tiny door opened again, and the man came out—with a woman. The man pointed—at Colene's face. The two stared up at her.
It was because of her the man had been hurrying home! To these folk, she was a monstrous giant peering down with unknown intent. They were terrified!
"Hey, I'm just curious," she murmured, afraid that her breath might blow them away.
It talks!
That was the man's thought—which Seqiro had relayed to her. She could communicate with them! Their minds must be wide open, or maybe the horse had become attuned to the mind-set of all the people of Julia.
Parts of both, Seqiro responded.
"I'm just a person, like you," she said to the tiny ones, letting her vocalization shape her thought. "I'm just passing through. I hope I didn't step on anyone."
Leave us alone, anima!
Obviously they had been doing damage as they tramped heedlessly across this planet! The best thing they could do for these people was to get away and let them repair the damage. Suddenly Colene felt awesomely responsible.
Yet was it any different back home on Earth? All her life she had walked without much regard for the tiny plants and bugs that might be under her feet. Didn't ants care whether they got squished? Now that it was people getting squished, she felt horribly guilty. This was evidently an animus planet, but that did not mean it was right to crush their people.