Meanwhile the woman was answering Nona. Nona was catching on to the variant of the language.
"She says that when you come here, you are hers."
"She can say what she chooses. I am not hers."
The woman finally let him go. She turned and walked ahead of them down the tunnel. Darius found her retreat as intriguing as her advance. He glanced at Stave and saw agreement there. The brown tunic was as close-fitting in back as it was in front. Whatever the woman was, she was no physical monster.
"Do we follow?" Nona asked. She too was watching the rabble woman, and her expression was just about what Colene's would have been: assessment and marginal resentment.
"There seems little else to do," Darius said.
They followed. The woman rounded a turn and disappeared, but in a moment they saw her again as they rounded the same turn. She was waiting for them, and now stepped forward to embrace Darius again. She said something.
"Her name is Potia," Nona reported. "She says you must breed with her."
This is odd, Seqiro thought. I thought I was making progress, but it has become harder to reach her mind.
"She must realize that something is happening, and be closing her mind,". Darius said, gently pushing the woman back. "To what I say as well as to your probing."
A second woman approached. She too was in a brown tunic, but her hair and eyes were yellow. She was as pretty as Potia, but in a different way. She approached Stave.
"Hey," Nona protested as the woman embraced Stave.
The woman spoke. Darius was beginning to recognize the patterning of the language. This woman was saying the same thing to Stave that Potia had said to him, Darius.
Stave looked at Nona. "May I tell her that you are my love?" he asked.
"Is there any danger in that?" Darius asked. "Could that woman decide to get rid of Nona, if she sees her as a rival?"
There does not seem to be hostility, only urgency. She is interested only in Stave.
Nona was hesitating. Then Darius realized, as he felt the underlying emotions Seqiro picked up, that it was not just a matter of safety, but of uncertainty. She was not in love with Stave.
"Perhaps I am not," she said apologetically.
Stave spoke to the woman. "I am not looking for love at the moment."
The woman hardly paused. Her name, she said, was Keli. He had to breed with her. She clarified this by taking one of his hands and placing it on her full bosom.
Stave, intrigued, nevertheless demurred. After a moment Keli withdrew, disappointed, and joined Potia, leading the way on around the turn. They disappeared.
"Again we follow," Darius said, somewhat bemused by this pattern.
As before, the women were waiting for them, as if surprised that the party had not kept up. Each embraced "her" man again, despite lack of encouragement.
They are not hostile. But their minds are odd. I have lost progress again. There is something strange about this situation.
Darius and Stave laughed. There certainly was!
Then a young man approached. He was in brown, too, with brown hair and yellow eyes, and quite handsome. He approached Nona.
Both Darius and Stave moved to block him from her. "No, let him come," Nona said. "These folk seem to have their way of greeting us."
They did indeed! Darius and Stave moved out of the way, and the man came to embrace Nona. He sought to kiss her, but she turned her face aside. "I am Lang," he said. "I am to breed with you."
"Not yet," Nona said, disengaging much as the men had. "But thank you for the offer."
He let her go, though evidently disappointed. He joined the two women in brown and they led the way on down the curvy passage, walking quickly.
"This grows familiar," Darius said. But he did not rush to keep the pace, knowing that the three would wait the moment they got out of sight.
So it was. In a moment they rounded the bend and rejoined the three, who were waiting expectantly. This time all three stepped forward to embrace their chosen people, as if long separated from friends. Darius, Stave, and Nona submitted with resignation.
"All we are missing is a mare," Darius muttered as they followed the rabble folk on down into the planet.
There was the sound of hooves.
It was a brown mare, with brown eyes and yellow mane. She nuzzled Seqiro. She seemed to be ready to mate.
Her name is Bel, Seqiro thought. But her mind is as obscure as the others. It seems to be of similar intelligence. She will soon be in heat.
"These encounters are no coincidence," Darius said. "They saw us coming. They must be trying to lull us by suggesting that they find us attractive for breeding purposes. But what is their real object?"
I can not fathom that in any of them.
"But as long as we are sure they are not hostile, we can go with them," Nona said. "If they remain friendly long enough, we shall be able to endure until Colene and Provos return with our information."
"I think I would rather have encountered vicious monsters," Darius said. "Then we could have settled with them and known where we stood. These folk may be friendly, but let's not reveal the several powers we have until such time as we have to."
"I was thinking the same thing," Nona said. "They won't expect magic in a woman."
"Or in men who have been exiled," Stave said.
"Or in a horse," Darius added.
Agreed.
"Are we sure we have magic here?" Stave inquired. "The rabble are confined because they are subhuman, having no magic at all, but that might be because no magic works here."
That could account for my difficulty getting into their minds, Seqiro thought. My ability is limited in range on the surface, and perhaps limited in depth here.
"We had better test it," Darius said. "The moment the natives give us another moment by ourselves."
"Which is right now," Darius said. He brought out his icon of himself, invoked it, and lifted it slightly. He felt his body being tugged upward. His magic still worked.
Meanwhile a picture appeared on the wall, of the four of them. That meant that Stave's power of illusion was functional. And a loose stone on the floor lifted, hovered, circled, and dropped. Nona's levitation remained.
"Our powers remain," Darius said. "So probably yours does too, Seqiro. After all, you have been mind-talking with us throughout. But the minds here are hard for you to get into. Once you fathom them, they may be as easy to read as ours are."
There is something else, the horse thought grimly. I start to penetrate the minds, then lose my way. That has never happened before.
They walked on around the turn. There were the four rabble. The three human ones came to embrace, and the mare to sniff noses. There certainly was something odd; why did they always repeat these actions after such brief separations?
Now the tunnel opened out into a larger system. There was a broad center passage, with many intersecting tunnels. This might be the equivalent of a village.
Still the four who had introduced themselves disappeared and reappeared, just stepping momentarily out of sight as the group walked on. Finally Seqiro figured it out: They are changing creatures! Every few minutes we are in the company of four new ones who look, sound, and smell like the others.
"Now, that's interesting," Darius said. "That accounts for your inability to penetrate their minds: you're continually working on new, unfamiliar minds. But what is the point?"
If I could focus on a single mind for a longer period, I should be able to discover that.
"Then we must help you to do that. How can we prevent one of them from changing?"
"By preventing her from stepping out of our sight," Stave said. "I think I could do that, but I'm not sure how you would feel about it, Nona."
"I am nervous about being ignorant in this place," Nona said. "If you can hold yours, do it."
So Stave proceeded to do that. When the next group came to embrace, he welcomed it, and did not let his yellow-haired-and-eyed woman Keli go. I
nstead he kissed her again. "Maybe you are right," he told her carefully in her dialect. "Maybe we had better breed."
Nona faced away, protecting her expression. Now she understood why he had thought she might object. Nevertheless, she made a running translation for Darius; she wrestled with the variants of words, and as she managed to grasp them, Seqiro relayed the meanings.
Keli was delighted. "Now!" she exclaimed, tugging at her tight tunic.
"Maybe not right now, for we of the surface have peculiar conventions. We like to be alone for such activity."
"I will take you to a private chamber!" she said eagerly.
"But we also like to get to know each other first," he continued. "We prefer to have an enduring relationship. That takes time."
"But that is not needed for breeding!" she objected. "You cannot remain with me after breeding."
"Now, this is interesting," Nona murmured. "Women who prefer to breed and run?"
"That is not the way the women of my world feel," Darius said.
But it is for my kind
Both Darius and Nona smiled.
"It is the way it must be," Keli said. "You must not stay with the one you have bred."
"Why not?" Stave inquired. The other rabble folk were moving on ahead, but he held Keli, who seemed quite willing to remain. "I might want to do it again with you."
"Oh!" She was shocked.
Meanwhile the others disappeared. But Keli, despite her distress, remained. She could not change with another who seemed exactly like her.
"I am from the surface, and ignorant of your ways," Stave said patiently. "You will have to explain to me why I can not breed with you repeatedly, if I like you."
"Because you must be shared," she said.
"But I want to share only with you."
"No! With a thousand women!"
This surprised them all. "What?" Stave asked.
"You must breed with a thousand women before you can settle with one," she explained. "It is the Way."
"It is not my way. I want only one."
Their party, still walking, caught up with the other three. They had changed, but Keli had not.
I am getting into her mind, Seqiro thought. She is not trying to mask her thoughts.
"I think none of them are," Darius said. "They merely keep changing, for what reason we hope to learn."
Stave embraced Keli as the others embraced their own. "Maybe after the thousand," she said. "Then you will be free."
"I'm free now," he said.
Now her look was sad. "You are not."
"But I am. If I do not like it here, I will leave."
"You can not. You must breed."
She is speaking the truth. She believes we are captives.
Darius looked around. They were coming to a central garden spot, where many men were working. The plants were unlike those of the surface, which had a superficial resemblance to those of his reality and Colene's. These didn't bother; they were weirdly fractal, with branches radiating out into further branches, but no obvious roots or stems or leaves. Some seemed kaleidoscopic, and some like assorted fish eyes, and yet others like bunches of feathers. Some were squares piled on squares, or fragments of squares, becoming crystalline, reminding nun of the valleys of his home. There seemed to be an infinite variety, but he could not see how they grew or how they were used.
"That is not a thing that can be dictated by others," Stave said. "It has to be by choice."
"It's nice when by choice," she said. "But it must be, regardless."
Truth.
Darius liked the smell of this no better than the others did. Why was there this imperative for mass breeding?
"I must learn more of this," Stave said. "I am learning your dialect. Let us go somewhere private and talk, and come to a more perfect understanding."
"Will you breed with me?" she asked eagerly.
He glanced again at Nona. "You're a man," Nona said, resigned. "Do what men do. We need the information." It seemed that their normal dialect was indecipherable to the rabble; Seqiro's help enabled them to understand Keli. Thus they could continue to talk among themselves, without giving away the fact of Seqiro's mind-talk.
"I may breed with you if I come to understand the necessity," Stave said.
"Yes! Here!" She drew him into a side passage, and thence into a private chamber.
Darius glanced at Nona. They had been left behind physically, but not mentally, for Stave remained within range. What were they to do while Stave worked on getting them what they needed to know?
Then Stave reappeared, holding Keli's hand. This was not affection so much as making sure she was not switched for another Keli without his knowledge. "My companions," he said. "They must be fed, and have a place to rest, while we talk."
Immediately, the three other rabble folk, who had changed out several times during this dialogue, responded. They led Darius, Nona, and Seqiro to a table where objects of assorted shapes were piled. This was food?
Potia picked up a branching stick and proffered it to Darius. He gazed blankly at it. Then she put it to her mouth and bit at the fringe. It broke off, and she chewed on the fragment.
Darius took it from her and tried a bite himself. The stuff was brittle, but melted as soon as it touched his mouth. It had a sweet aroma and taste. This was indeed food.
There were also vessels of liquid: bubblelike shapes with projecting blisters, which in turn had projections. When a person bit off a small projection, he could then sip the liquid nectar within.
So they ate, and while they did so, they tuned in on Stave's dialogue with Keli. She was feeding him a similar repast, but in a suggestive manner: she caressed him somewhere each time she gave him something. He was becoming interested, for she was a fine-looking woman. But the point of it was what they were saying to each other.
"I do not understand about breeding with a thousand women," Stave said. "On the surface, a man breeds with one woman, and if he considers doing it with another, the first is upset." As Nona would be, if he let this creature seduce him: his thought came through clearly. Darius understood the situation well enough. He glanced across at Nona, and she met his gaze briefly. Her thought came through: she and Stave were close, but not possessively close; it was Stave's right to do as he chose. Had she wanted to reserve him for herself, she should have done it before, and she had not.
"We rabble want most of all to return to the surface world," Keli replied. "But we can not, for we have no magic, not even illusion. But if we breed with those from the surface, our children may have magic, and be able to return. So we long instead for that, and do our utmost to breed with those who are fresh from there. It is our rule: any person from that realm must breed with a thousand of our folk before being free to do what he prefers. His only choice is with whom to breed. We will not let you go until you have done this."
Stave was beginning to appreciate the enormity of this requirement. "But Nona—the woman of our party—she could never succeed in doing this!"
Darius felt Nona stiffen beside him. This was becoming uncomfortably personal.
"Yes, she could," Keli answered. "She could breed with twenty men in a day, and finish in fifty days."
Nona did not seem reassured by that estimate.
"But she would not have a thousand babies!"
"But she would have one, and have given a thousand men the chance to sire that one."
So that was it: a fair chance for every one of the rabble. It was beginning to make sense.
"But a man could not do that," Stave continued. "He—maybe several in a day, but not twenty, and not for long."
"We know. So it will be one a day, for a thousand days. Starting with me, for you."
"But you might not conceive!"
"But I will have my chance. Some will conceive. There will be some babies who can go to the surface. That is all we ask. A thousand attempts with a thousand folk. It is not so much, because we take good care of you."
"Suppose I d
ecide not to?" he demanded.
"I will try my best to persuade you," she said. "Like this." She drew off her tunic, to reveal a body that struck Darius as it did Stave. Stave's mind was relaying a mental picture: perfection. It would be no chore to address that body.
But Stave, like Darius, knew caution. He knew that the other rabble folk had been changing every few minutes, though they looked the same. He wanted to know why, but hesitated to ask.
I have found it, Seqiro thought. These folk are form-changers. Each can assume any form, human or animal, though they can not change their body mass, so it is not true magic. Form does not matter much to them; it is a convenience of the moment. They are giving as many of their number as possible a chance to breed: each has a set time to make an impression, and then must give place to another. Kelt is the name of that form, not the person; but the person in that form when Stave took an interest is allowed to continue, and to breed with him if she can.
Darius whistled soundlessly. Form-changing and the desire to breed with the newcomers: that accounted for everything. It also showed an extremely fine-tuned program. Surely these folk did know how to prevent their visitors from departing, and how to force them to breed if they did not do so voluntarily. This was a trap of an unanticipated nature.
Nona, receiving his thoughts, looked pale. How were they going to handle this?
"Could they even assume our forms?" Darius asked.
They could.
"Then we had better develop sufficient mental touch to know exactly with whom we are dealing," Darius said.
I know the difference between your minds and theirs, the horse assured him. I will keep you informed. They are not aware of my ability, so are taking no precautions against it. My difficulty in reading their minds is purely because they are constantly changing folk, and new minds are hard to address.
They continued eating, while Stave continued to fend off Keli's advances without actually rejecting her.
Then Nona stood. "Is there a private chamber for personal matters?" she inquired.
"Ah, you are ready to breed with me?" Long asked, pleased.
Oops. "Not yet," she said. "I meant for—I have eaten and drunk, and—"
"I will show you," he said quickly. Meanwhile Seqiro confirmed that such conventions were similar here to those of the surface realm.