‘Your question?’ asked Gojam.
‘We need to know two things. Where are we, and is there anyone out there who can help us?’
Gojam frowned and began to speak, then frowned again. When he did speak it was very gently. ‘You’re on a world in the dream zone, which I identify as the Mud Flats.’
There was a long silence, broken at last by Puy. That… that isn’t really helpful to us. I think what the philosophers want an answer to is the second question. Is there anyone out there who can help us?’
Gojam began to shake his head. Prince Charming very firmly took him by the neck and held him still.
‘It would help us if you told us why you wanted to know.’
‘Why… we need to know,’ asserted Puy. ‘There are certain problems we have been unable to solve. We have been unable even to agree on possible solutions. Basic philosophies differ. There is the question of the hatch rate, should it be encouraged or discouraged or should it be a matter of personal choice. There is the question of those among us who prefer not to provide their share of labor. Should they be conscripted against their will, and if not, are the rest of us under any obligation to feed them. There is the question of mechanicals. Some say they are diabolical and against the Will Of Him Who. Others maintain they are quite acceptable. We have come to bites and thrashings over these questions. Blood has been shed. Several of us have suffered quite severe lacerations. If there were someone neutral, someone from outside, who would arbitrate, perhaps give us another point of view…’
Gojam started to speak again, but the Prince held him firmly. ‘You’re saying there is considerable disagreement among you about how to solve your problems?’
The chief philosopher spoke up, nodding vigorously. ’Indeed. There is no agreement on how things should be handled. None at all. We need…’
‘You need someone who will tell you what to do?’
‘Well…’ They scurried together for another hurried colloquy.
‘… Not tell, precisely…’
‘… still it wouldn’t be a bad idea…’
‘I can answer your question,’ the Prince interrupted them. ’Yes, there are many worlds and creatures out there. Your next question will be, how do you reach them? Well, you cannot reach them until you have solved your own problems. And, no, we cannot help you with your problems. It is forbidden for us to do so. Each society must solve its own problems before it goes mixing about with other societies. That’s the law. Isn’t that right, Gojam?’
Gojam sulked only for a moment. ‘Perfectly correct, Prince. Exactly what I was going to say.’
‘In return for this information,’ Prince Charming continued, inexorably, ‘we’d like to ask a favor.’
‘Anything,’ breathed the philosophers sadly, banging their faces on their flippers, ‘anything at all.’
‘We have an enemy. A tall person shaped like one of us,’ the Prince indicated Marianne and himself. ‘A female person, if that concept is meaningful. She has a lot of very dark hair – this stuff. She is thinner than this person. She is as tall as I am. She has very fiery – ah, let me see – very intense-looking eyes. She may ask if you have seen us. She would not hesitate to destroy you if she did not get information to her liking.’
‘Say no more,’ breathed Puy. ‘No more. At the first sight of such a one, we will summon the tide.’
‘But your extraordinary building,’ murmured Marianne.
‘Thanks be to all the things that are or may be, we can quit building the damned thing,’ Puy said. ‘It’s been very tiring. You have no idea. It’s virtually destroyed our social system. Blessings on you for bringing us the law. Really.’ He turned and kicked at a bit of mud with his right flipper, watching it with satisfaction as it tumbled into the water and dissolved. All over the structure, mud creatures were ripping off chunks of building material and dropping them to see the splash.
There seemed nothing further to discuss. Gojam flicked his whip. They moved off into the mist.
‘Is what you said really the law?’ Marianne asked.
‘It is here,’ murmured the Prince. ‘It is now.’
When they had followed the wavering track until they could barely see the towers far behind them, Gojam muttered, ’Well, enough of this, all right? Where now? Someplace Madame won’t even consider looking for you. I have one or two ideas…’
‘No,’ said Prince Charming. ‘Our encounter with these creatures has brought me to confront the true problem we face. We can run from her for a very long time, but it won’t solve anything. Just as our mud friends have to solve their own problems, so do we.’
Marianne started to say something, then stopped, her tongue checked by that other person who seemed to be sharing her body. That person, in turn, stepped away, as though conscious she had been rude. In their common mind, Marianne could hear the half-humorous, half-hysterical laughter of that other person. ‘After you, Marianne.’
‘I was just going to say we have more problems than one.’ Her voice was stiff and unforgiving, and she glared at the Prince as though it had been his fault, only to feel the glare turn into a wry smile as that other Marianne peered through her eyes.
‘I know,’ he said. ‘I know. There are two of you in there, and I love at least one of you desperately. Since there were no provisions for that emotion in the world we fled from, it is obvious to me that the world from which we fled is not the world in which we belong. Gojam, can you take us through to our own real world?’
The momeg looked disappointed as he quirked his various eyebrows and twitched various parts of extremities. ‘Of course. There’s a likely nexus only a few steps from here. Though you have various real worlds. You, sir, have one. The woman has one. The other woman I sense to be present has another. The other momegs have their loci… well, you take my meaning.’
‘I do,’ Prince Charming mused, still attempting to draw the shreds of his clothing together, compulsively, as though he could find refuge behind or within some whole garment. ‘Our basic problem seems to be Madame Delubovoska. Though I cannot at the moment remember why she is a difficulty for us. Still, it is evident we cannot accomplish anything without dealing with her. Presumably she has a place in the real world. We should, therefore, be returned as near that place as we can be without endangering ourselves. If we have allies anywhere near, then we would like to go to the place our allies dwell.’
‘I will drop you,’ Gojam said in his usual kindly voice, ‘in the vicinity of Alphenlicht.’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘But my dear, if you didn’t tell the creature precisely where you wanted to be left off, you shouldn’t be angry if he just dropped you nearby.’ Ellat offered Marianne a towel. ‘Perhaps dung doesn’t mean to it what it does to us.’
Though Marianne did not remember Ellat, the woman’s astonishing familiarity and friendliness did not permit Marianne to react as to a stranger. ‘A dung pile is a dung pile,’ Marianne objected. ‘And I don’t for one moment think Gojam didn’t know it.’
‘What was it you said it was? A momentary god? Makr Avehl mentioned momentary gods just before he went after you.’
‘Gojam, the one with the peculiar sense of humor, went back, wherever they go. We have the other five with us, the dog ones.’
‘Aghrehond said something about it. I suggested the kennels, but he… he didn’t think that would do.’
‘They’re not really dogs, you know, Ellat. Not really.’
‘As for that, Marianne, who are you, really?’ The older woman turned Marianne around so she could look into her eyes. ‘Are you the girl I knew?’
‘Yes,’ said Marianne.
‘No,’ said Marianne.
It came out as a gargle.
‘You’re not sure,’ Ellat offered in a sympathetic tone. ‘Or maybe you’re both.’
‘An uncomfortable both,’ Marianne said, gritting her teeth. ’The thinking part works well, thank you. We each seem to have control of our own thoughts. But sometimes
both of us try to use the body at once. I go left, – she goes right. I say yes, she says no. We seem to gargle and stagger a lot. Well, you get the idea.’
‘Not at all pleasant,’ agreed Ellat. ‘Couldn’t you agree to take turns?’
‘It may come to that,’ Marianne agreed, closing her eyes wearily. ‘Except that I’m still half convinced this whole thing is a dream. Did Makr Avehl tell you about the world he found me in?’
Ellat shook her head. Actually, he had said a few words, but only a few, and most of those had had to do with Madame Delubovoska.
‘I was managing a laundry,’ Marianne mused.
‘The Cave of Light showed him a woman washing clothes,’ Ellat offered. ‘I imagine that’s how he found you.’
‘What I can’t understand is why? Even in dream there should be some logic. Why a laundry?’
Ellat stirred, a little uncomfortably. ‘You might discuss that with Therat…’
‘Therat?’
‘One of the Kavi. She is extremely interested in the power of symbols. I imagine she’ll tell you that the laundry was symbolic of something in your life. Some need for cleanliness or being cleansed of something. Some unexpressed wish for redemption, perhaps. Madame summoned you into her world, but your own conscious or subconscious symbolic structure would largely have determined the specific role you would play in that environment. At least, that’s my understanding of the way it works.’
‘A laundry!’ Marianne shook her head. ‘And then there’s this business of memory only working one way! When I’m there, I can’t remember here. But when I’m here, I can remember there well enough. Not like a dream at all, which is upsetting, because if it’s all a dream, which I believe it is, then I ought not to be able to remember it. Unless I’m not awake yet.’ She made a petulant gesture, aware of how ridiculous this sounded. ‘Well, let it go. I think the important thing for me now is to find out about air schedules to get home. If it’s a dream, I’ll dream my flight back. I may have already lost my job, not showing up for so long.’
‘How long do you think, my dear?’
‘Days. Weeks. Maybe months. No – only weeks, I think.’
‘Actually, less than one day.’
‘You’re joking?’
‘Not at all. It was only last night that we awoke, Makr Avehl and I, knowing something had happened to you. It is only a few hours since Aghrehond went after Makr Avehl. Time does not move in the false worlds as it moves here. Madame can do a year’s worth of damage in the false worlds in what passes for moments here in our world. In the dream worlds, one can live many lives in one lifetime or one can effectively experience an eternity of discomfort or horror.’
Both Mariannes took a moment to absorb this. ‘Well, little time or a lot, I’ve still got to get back to work,’ said the younger one. She rose with a bit of bustle, wanting to do something decisive, tired of being done to and with.
‘Marianne,’ said Makr Avehl from the doorway where, clad only in clean trousers, he stood vigorously toweling his head. ‘Don’t be silly. You can’t.’ His voice was fond, loving, concerned.
‘I most certainly can,’ she turned, eyes blazing, furious at his assumption of authority over her.
His lips clamped tight in disappointment and anger. ‘Then you’ll most certainly end up back in some laundry, or some library, or some dungeon once again! Madame is not going to give up. Can’t you get that through your head?’ He threw the towel on the floor and stamped on it with his bare feet as he left the room, shouting for someone to get him a shirt.
‘He doesn’t like me,’ said Marianne, slightly discomfitted. ’He really doesn’t.’
‘It isn’t that,’ Ellat murmured. ‘But you do rather stand between him and someone he loves very dearly.’
‘Her,’ snarled Marianne. ‘I know.’ She waited grimly for Marianne to assert herself, but there was only a silent, somehow satisfied watchfulness inside.
True, but it isn’t only that. He feels responsible for you. You both, I should say. The situation must be resolved, and he’s quite right. If you go back home, you’ll only end up ensorceled once again.’
‘If the damned woman wants to kill me, why doesn’t she just do it and get it over with? Why all this folderol, this magic this and that. I really don’t understand it. Don’t believe it. Don’t like it.’
‘Well, my dear, none of us do. As to why she doesn’t just hire some thug to murder you – well, the reason is fairly obvious I should think. She doesn’t really want you dead. She wants you in a state of subservience. She needs something from you. You really should enquire about your parents’ estate, Marianne. If Tabiti is seeking to enslave you, it must be because you have or will have some authority she wants.’
‘Well, I already have inquired about the estate,’ Marianne confessed, a little shamefacedly. ‘When Makr Avehl visited our home, he said something about it which piqued my curiosity, so I asked Mama. Evidently my independence has impressed Papa sufficiently that he has named me as the executor, for everything. I had always assumed there would be a number of trustees—and there will be if anything happens to me – but if anything happens to Mama and Papa and I’m alive and well, I’ll be the only one.’
‘Well then, you have the explanation so don’t be foolish,’ said Makr Avehl from the door. He had managed to get himself almost fully dressed, and was now tucking in an unbuttoned shirt that displayed a generous extent of muscular and smooth-skinned chest. ‘It’s obvious what Tabiti wants – just what she’s wanted all along: control of the Zahmani estates. She enslaves you, then does away with your parents, and she’s what you Americans would call home free.’
Marianne withdrew her eyes from Makr Avehl’s naked chest, surprised to find that simple action very difficult. ‘Ah – um, I did think she was going to kill me, though, there in the arena.’ The sight of his body was doing strange things to her breathing.
‘I think not. The threat to you was a ploy designed to get me into the act,’ Makr Avehl said, buttoning his shirt. ‘Since I represent a challenge to her plans, naturally, she wants me out of the way entirely.’
‘If she had killed you there, would you be… that is, would it have…’
‘Would it have killed me here and now? Oh, very much so. Because everything that makes me me was there. All that was left here was a kind of anchor.’
‘And yet when we’re… there, we don’t remember… here.’
‘No, because if we did, we couldn’t be fully involved in the dream world. Our memories of home would keep us from interacting with where we are and what we’re doing. You couldn’t really have been concerned about that laundry if you’d remembered home, could you? Could I have believed in myself as Prince Charming if I had remembered who I was?’
‘Does Madame remember who she is when she’s there?’
Makr Avehl looked puzzled. ‘You know, I haven’t the least idea. It wouldn’t surprise me. In fact, that could be part of the secret of her power, an ability to take her memory intact into the false worlds. It would be quite a trick, wouldn’t it, Ellat?’
‘It would indeed,’ she said with a harsh twist to her lips. ’Though I hate to think what she must have done to gain that ability. Not something I think we want to try for, Makr Avehl.’
‘No fear, Sister.’
‘May I enter, most exalted one?’ Aghrehond stood at the door, his hair still wet from the thorough washing he had given it. Of them all, Aghrehond had been most completely buried in the dung pile. ‘May I greet our guest in my own inimitable person? May I say hello and how-de-do and welcome to Alphenlicht?’
Ellat beckoned him. ‘Don’t be an ass. Hondi. Come in.’
‘But I am an ass, Lady. Or was. First cousin to one. Did I make an excellent horse, Marianne? Was I splendid?’
‘Perfectly splendid, Aghrehond,’ she choked, fighting her internal twin for possession of her voice.
‘I liked you better as the grassy dog,’ said Marianne, taking over. ‘I liked you
as Cani Grassi, Aghrehond. Fighting the Manticore.’
Makr Avehl stepped forward to embrace her, holding her very tightly only for a moment, then stepping back as she started to writhe away from him.
‘I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ said Marianne, not entirely convincingly. She found herself panting.
‘It was the other one I embraced,’ he whispered. ‘Don’t take it personally.’
She, however, was taking it very personally, since every inch of her body yearned toward him. Her limbs felt loosened, somehow separated from her, as though they were floating. Hot, sweet liquid was running through her veins, and there was a tingle in her breasts. She breathed as though she had been running. She sat down abruptly, sending a confused, hostile thought toward her tenant.
‘Damn it, do you have to melt like that?’
‘I love him, silly girl. What do you want me to do? Simply ignore how I feel?’
‘I want you to go back where you came from.’
‘I am where I came from. Precisely.’
‘Then go wherever you went when I was twelve.’
‘Not on your life. I tried that, and all it did was almost get us both killed.’
‘What brought you back, anyhow?’
‘You know very well!’ Marianne felt the internal blush.
‘Oh, the Sleeping Princess was awakened by Prince Charming’s kiss? Isn’t that a dreadful cliché?’
‘Marianne!’ Ellat was shaking her. ‘Stop that. Your eyes are crossed and you’re making disgusting noises. If you have to argue with yourself, go out in the garden and do it out loud.’ She pushed the embarrassed girl out the door and made a gesture at the two men who had been watching, openmouthed. ‘And as for you two, go away. Makr Avehl, I’m ashamed of you. You’re not helping, not at all.’
‘What do you want me to do, Ellat?’ he echoed Marianne’s silent question. ‘Pretend she isn’t here?’
‘You could try that. For a time. While we try or she tries or they try to sort it out.’