Fractal Mode

CHAPTER 16—ANIMA

IT was working! Nona was thrilled. When Seqiro linked her closely with Keli, and Keli changed shape, Nona was able to catch a glimmer of what was happening. Day by day she practiced, and bit by bit she learned. It would be a long time before she was as good as the rabble, but in time she would have it.

Then Seqiro’s thought came from the chamber closest to the surface. He had been spending most of his time there, questing out through the rock to the anchor, convinced that though his range was limited, he could sense the one he loved from afar. Nona wished he felt that way about her. Colene! I feel Colene!

It was time. “We must go!” Nona cried.

“But first we must tell Stave,” Darius reminded her.

Oh. Yes. Nona had promised. “Where is he?” she asked.

“I know where!” Keli said eagerly.

They went to the dais chamber. There was one of the Stave emulations, eating a meal. “Are you the real Stave?” Nona asked him.

He snapped his fingers, and a ball of fire appeared there. It expanded and formed a face. The face winked. He was the real Stave. “Are you the real Nona?” he asked.

“Of course I am!” she said.

He stood. “Then embrace me. Kiss me. Strip naked.”

“I will do no such thing!” she said indignantly.

He nodded. “Then you are the real one.”

That set her back. Of course the Null-Nonas would be happy to do any of that sort of thing he asked; they all wanted so desperately to breed. “Yes. Colene has returned, and we must go. I—I owe Keli here a favor. You must choose her next.”

He shook his head. “But that is not the real Nona speaking. You don’t even have her face perfect.”

“I changed it,” Nona said, realizing that she was at this moment almost a parody of herself. So she proved herself: she flew up and hovered a body length above the floor.

Stave nodded. “If the rabble could do that, they wouldn’t need us. Very well: Keli it is.”

Keli ran to him. “Oh, thank you! I want you so much!”

“You almost had me, that first day,” he told her.

“Yes! And now at last it shall be!”

Nona turned away. This business disgusted her. Yet she knew that if Stave had not agreed to do this, she herself would have had to be defending her body from rape every day for a thousand days. She knew she owed him her gratitude. It was just that somehow she did not properly feel it.

“Nona!” Stave called after her. “Don’t forget! You must rescue me from this!”

She turned back to look at him. Keli was already out of her brown tunic, a fine figure of a naked woman. Was Stave hiding a smile? “Yes, as soon as possible,” she agreed grimly.

THE three of them gathered at a chamber near the surface, but not the one closest to the anchor where Colene would arrive. The despots would be watching the place where they had been. But they should have some brief freedom if they emerged at a new spot.

Nona reached out, seeking the bat she had tamed as a familiar. She had thought that she could not penetrate the barrier between the nether realm and the surface, but had found that with concentration and determination it was possible. She found the bat in the cave. She woke it and caused it to fly to a forest thicket not far from the village. There Seqiro was able to reach its mind.

The bat flew to a glade in the forest. It flew around it, questing for danger. There did not seem to be any person there.

Darius and Nona climbed onto Seqiro’s solid back. Then Darius designated the circles, activated the three icons, and moved them.

They landed in the glade. They staggered, getting reoriented. They seemed to have made it without being spotted.

“But the despots’ familiars will be cruising everywhere,” Nona said. “They may even be watching for daytime bats.”

“I know where the anchor is from here,” Darius said. “We can go there immediately.”

“But if we go too soon, we shall have to wait there, and they will find us.”

Colene is approaching the anchor. She has companions.

Darius was startled. “Companions? Plural? Not just Provos?”

Two others. Male and female. Their minds are not yet clear to me, but both seem unusual.

“Is that good or bad?” This was a complication Darius did not seem to like. Nona was not easy with it either. Why would Colene have brought more people?

It seems bad. The female is young, with much pain.

“Colene must have reason,” Darius decided. But his unspoken thoughts, relayed to Nona, indicated that he was nervous about the girl’s reasoning. It was not easy to bring others through the Virtual Mode; it was necessary to be tied to them at all times, lest they be lost. Whatever Colene’s reason, it would have to be very strong. And why had Provos agreed with it? What future had the old woman seen?

Darius’ thoughts made Nona just as nervous. She had come to know Colene as an impulsive but intelligent girl. What strange thing was going on?

They are coming through the anchor.

“Then we go!” Darius said.

He conjured them there. Suddenly they were standing by the anchor, on the slope leading up to the sea and the giant stone instruments.

Colene appeared as she emerged from the anchor. Then two other human figures, and finally Provos.

Despots are approaching.

Nona looked around, but did not see the despots. She trusted the horse’s awareness, however. They had to get quickly away from here! But how could they do it with four extra people, two of them strangers? It would take too much time just to explain the situation to them!

“Darius!” Colene called, seeing him. “Where’s Angus?”

Seqiro sent out a thought: ANGUS!

There was a motion high in the sky. It became the form of the giant man, flying toward them.

Meanwhile Darius was forging toward Colene. He swept her into his embrace. She met him eagerly, kissing him on forehead, nose, and eyeball before finding the range. Nona wished she had been able to love Stave like that. “Conjure us out of here, stupid!” Colene whispered, her words carried by Seqiro’s mind-talk.

“But Angus needs to be told—”

“Provos is handling that. I have to be with you. Move it!”

Nona hoped the girl knew what she was doing. Darius lifted Colene onto Seqiro’s back, pressed close to Nona and the horse, and tuned in to the familiar-bat. It had moved, and now was over a field. He conjured them there.

“Okay, folks,” Colene said briskly. “I got the info. I know where it is, I think. The despots’ll be hot on our trail, so we’d better move right along. But they don’t know where we’re going. First, to the head.”

“But it will take the familiar time to get there,” Nona protested.

Colene frowned. “Damn, that’s right! Then we’d better use Angus after all. Can’t save him for a decoy.”

Angus!

The giant heard. He swooped down again.

“Take us to the head!” Colene cried.

Provos and the two strangers were on the giant’s left hand. Darius, Seqiro, and Nona went to the right hand. “No, Nona—you go with the others,” Colene said.

Nona did not argue. She went to the left hand and climbed on.

Angus lifted them carefully: four of them in one hand, three in the other, but one of the three was the massive horse. Angus flew up, high into the sky, leaving behind any despot pursuit. Then he leveled off and commenced the flight west.

Colene kissed Darius again. It was almost as if she was afraid he would disappear if she did not constantly demonstrate her feeling for him. “I made icons for my friends, and got their hair, spit, and breath. Here.” She handed him two doll figures. “So you can conjure them too, if you have to.”

“Thank you,” Darius said, bemused. “But why did you bring—?”

“I’ll get to that.” Colene looked across the hands. “Nona, I’ll go over the stuff with you. But first you have to meet my friends, Slick and Esta. Uncle and niece. From Earth. They’re going to Provos’ reality.”

“Hello,” Nona said to them, as perplexed as Darius. What a whirlwind of activity Colene was!

Slick nodded, and the girl just looked at her. “They’re not up on your language,” Colene explained. “And Seqiro hasn’t fully fathomed them yet. But you don’t have to wait for that. I can translate. Esta needs your help.” Then, to the girl: “Es, show her. It’s okay.”

The girl worked open her shirt and showed her chest. It was a mass of scars. Nona was appalled. How could such mutilation have come about?

“You don’t want to know,” Colene said. “Just heal her as well as you can.”

Nona thought of the memory Seqiro had shared with her, of Colene’s experience with rape, and knew that Colene was not teasing. It was best not to inquire.

She took the girl’s hand in her own. “I must touch you, to heal you,” she said. Colene picked up her thought and spoke in the girl’s strange language.

Esta spoke. “Touch me, I don’t care,” Colene translated. Nona realized that it was not the language the horse understood, but the mind. Seqiro had access to Colene’s mind, but not Esta’s mind, so Esta’s words were meaningless.

Nona sat behind the girl, her legs spread outside, and drew Esta back into Nona herself. This was what she had done with Darius, when healing his rat bite. She reached around and put her hands inside the girl’s shirt, against the bare scarred skin of her chest. She concentrated.

“Something is happening!” Esta exclaimed, surprised. This time Nona understood her directly; perhaps their close contact facilitated Seqiro’s entry into the girl’s mind.

“I am healing you, with my magic,” Nona responded.

“I feel it! I feel it! It feels so good!”

“I told you she could do it,” Colene said. “She healed Darius.”

“The pain—it’s going! Can you heal my mind too?”

“No,” Nona said sadly. “Only your body.”

“But Provos can heal your mind,” Colene said. “She will take you back to her reality, where the folk remember only the future. If you can be like them, you will lose your past, and it won’t affect you any more. I think it will be that way, because the longer you are in that reality, the more you will become of it, at least in body and culture. That’s why Provos came for you; she remembered that you needed her.”

“That’s why she came?” Darius asked, surprised. “But she can’t remember in other realities. She has to be in them before she can remember.”

“I know. I was with her. We went to her reality—and to yours. She must remember what it will be like in her reality after she gets back. And she remembers Slick and Esta being with her. She knew them both, the moment she saw them. She hugged them like old friends. Like family members.” Colene paused.

“Yes, of course,” Provos said.

“Isn’t that so, Provos?” Colene asked. Nona knew that the girl had deliberately timed it, to let the woman answer before the question came. “That you remember Slick and Esta with you from now on?”

“It is true,” Provos agreed.

“Isn’t it true that Slick and Esta have a happy life coming in your reality, with him earning an honest living and her growing up and marrying a local boy and being happy ever after?”

Provos smiled, nodding.

“You have a family now,” Colene said evenly. “A son and granddaughter, as far as you know, even if you don’t remember marrying or losing your husband. But you love them and they love you, and it doesn’t matter where they may have come from.”

“Yes, my dear,” Provos said to Esta.

Esta stared at Provos. She spoke. Colene translated in her mind as she heard the words, so that Seqiro could send the meaning to the others immediately. To Nona, it was as if she now understood Esta. “I will forget how I have lived? I will remember what is to happen?”

The girl looked across at Colene. “It is a nice place? Where she lives?”

“A real nice place,” Colene assured her. “The kind of place you’ll want to spend the rest of your life.” Nona understood from the peripheral thoughts that they had had this dialogue before, but that Esta needed repeated reassurance. The girl was horribly insecure, and afraid that anything good was illusory. She had suffered terribly, and could not quite believe that this was over.

Nona released the girl; her body had been healed. Esta crawled across Angus’ hand to Provos, who had already spread her arms. They hugged.

Slick shook his head. “I never dreamed of such a thing. It’s like magic.”

“It’s magic, dummy,” Colene said. “Get used to it. After flying across a planet on the hand of a giant, you shouldn’t find it all that difficult.”

“A barber,” Provos said, looking up.

Colene smiled. “What kind of job will Slick have?” she asked the woman. Slick choked, and Nona wondered why, until she caught Colene’s thought: Slick had made his former living by slicing people’s throats.

Slick recovered in a moment. “I wonder whether there will be a woman for me,” he mused.

“She is a hairdresser,” Provos replied.

Colene smiled. “That’s not your answer. Here, I’ll do it. Provos, what kind of job does Slick’s wife do?”

Nona smiled. That showed how the two would meet.

“Beautiful,” Provos said.

This time Slick put the question himself. “What will my wife look like?”

Darius interceded. “You had better leave something to discover, or you will be bored before it happens.” Then he turned to Colene. “You visited my reality?”

“We sure did,” Colene replied, pleased. “I met Kublai, and Prima, and Keren. Keren and I, we really understand each other. And Ella.” She fixed him with an irate gaze. “You won’t be taking off her diaper any more once I get there, you damned horny man.”

Darius looked abashed, but Nona did not fathom the reason. A diaper was for a baby, but Ella didn’t sound like a baby. Then Colene laughed, and hugged him. Whatever it was, it was all right, or at least tolerable.

So it was that they passed the time, coming to know each other better, while Angus carried them west toward the head. After a while Colene settled down to business.

“I have the stuff on the rads,” she told Nona. “But it’s a bit tricky. Let me see if I can make it clear.”

Colene concentrated, and a picture formed in Nona’s mind. It was an outline of Oria. with its body, head, and rads. “What we want is R1/R2/R3 and so on up to /R9. Don’t worry about what it’s called; I figured it out by studying the newsletter the prof gave me in my reality. R1 is the Body, /R2 is the Head, and /R3 is here.” On her mental picture the largest rad on the head glowed. “Then we climb onto /R3 and look for /R4 on it.” The rad expanded in the image, until it filled the mental screen. The /R4 that now glowed on that was about halfway between the small head of /R3 and the large curve of the surface of /R2. “We’ll keep getting farther around on each next rad,” Colene said. “But we’ll get there. The ninth rad on the eighth rad is going to be pretty small, though.”

“Just so long as you know the way!” Nona said, thrilled at this confirmation that the girl’s quest for information had been successful. It seemed so sensible now.

“Just so long as the despots don’t know the way,” Colene said. “Because if they do, they’ll stop us.”

“But we must succeed, because Provos remembers that we do,” Nona said.

“I’m not so sure of that. Provos remembers what’s in her own reality, because that’s where she’ll return to settle. But she’s just passing by this one, and maybe what she remembers is subject to change.”

“But surely her memories of her own world are fixed, because she isn’t there to change things,” Nona protested, though she wasn’t sure of her logic. “So the right things must happen here, so that she and her friends can go there.”

“I see Colene’s point,” Darius said. “Provos, Slick, and Esta may indeed be guaranteed their arrival at her reality. But the rest of us are not destined for her reality, and so her memory offers us no guarantee. She may take them with her after we succeed here—or fail. Nona can pass just the three of them through the anchor, and the rest of us may be bound here, if the animus continues.”

That made uncomfortable sense. There was indeed no guarantee for the success of her mission. Anything could happen—including death for several of them.

They crossed the sea that circled Oria between the Body and the Head and flew across the lesser mass of the Head. Nona remembered the story of Earle and Kara, flying similarly across the worlds. Would she herself someday be the stuff of a legend? Perhaps so, if she succeeded in bringing the anima.

Night came, as the ninety-eight-ray star disappeared behind the world. The myriad other stars now showed more clearly, large and small. It was beautiful, as it always was. Perhaps in the pristine early days of the world all of the patterns of glow had been visible all the time, but now much of it could be seen only in the dark.

Angus found an isolated place and came down to the surface. He was tired and needed to rest, and the rest of them needed food and sanitary relief. Nona took the leaf of a plant and transformed it into fruit. Seqiro accepted grain she made for him, then wandered away to graze, keeping in mind-touch. He was alert for other human beings, especially despots. The despots of this region would not be the same as those of Nona’s region, but they surely had spread the word. No despot, anywhere on Oria, could be trusted to be other than an enemy.

They settled for the night, Angus stretched out between rads, careful not to damage any trees, while the others formed a cluster in a glade. Nona made material for a tent, which Darius and Colene and Slick pitched with reasonable success. She made pallets and blankets for them each, but Darius and Colene elected to share theirs, as did Slick and Esta. Provos slept alone, and so did Nona. Surely it did not bother Provos, but Nona wished Stave were with her. Yet had he been with her, he would have been interested in sexual expression, and she was not. She could tell from the ambience of their minds that Slick and Esta had no such interest in each other, being blood relatives, and that Darius and Colene did but were not indulging it. So there was closeness and comfort for others, but not for Nona. By her own choice, mostly. Yet it frustrated her too.

The fact was, she realized, that though she had been slow to commit to Stave, she had expected to in time. The overwhelming importance of the anima had governed her emotion; she could not think of settling down with a man until that was done. If she failed to accomplish it, then she might be dead or imprisoned or exiled, and in no condition to marry. So she had suppressed what feelings she might have had. But now Stave was gone, and she knew that once he had tasted the endless blandishments of seductive rabble women, he would lose his interest in Nona. Why should he settle for one when he could have any he chose, a new one each day, each more eager than the last? She had realized from the part of his mind that Seqiro shared that he was as lusty as the next man, and that his attraction to Nona herself had been at least as much for her appearance as for her position as the ninth. Were she not pretty, and not the ninth, he would never have noticed her. He was a good man, yet she was not satisfied with this.

So it was best for her to break with Stave. They were not, in the end, right for each other. She needed a different sort of man. But where on Oria was the kind she wanted? If she brought the anima, she would be queen, the only one on the planet with magic. After the visitors from the Virtual Mode left. Who would care to marry her? Who would she care to marry? She didn’t want to marry at all!

And there was the heart of it. She did want a social life, but she was not ready to settle down. She preferred to have freedom and adventure, to experience a mystery of the future. Marriage, babies, growing old—that did not appeal at all. Not even if she were queen.

But what else was there? Her fate had been sealed when she was born as the ninth.

Nona settled into an unhappy sleep.

WAKE. The despots come.

It was Seqiro. Nona struggled awake, and heard the others stirring. Outside the tent was the noise of Angus getting up. It was still dark.

“How close?” Colene asked.

You have time to dress and make droppings.

Nona hurried to do those things. Then she transformed the tent material back to a piece of string, and the blankets to tiny swatches of cloth, She was ready when the others were, with a basket of fruit to hand out for them to eat on the run.

Angus squatted and laid his two hands on the ground. Each person went to the hand used before.

“No, you come with us, Nona,” Colene said. “This is Business Day.”

It was indeed! Nona joined Darius, Colene, and Seqiro on the right hand, while Provos, Slick, and Esta got on the left.

It was crowded, because of the mass of the horse, but Nona really liked being with Seqiro. She was jealous of Colene in that respect: she had the most fabulous companion!

Angus sailed up. As he did, several men rose from the forest at some distance; the despots were flying after them!

But they could not match the range and speed of the giant from Jupiter. Angus readily left them behind. However, several birds maintained the pursuit: the familiars of the despots. How could they escape pursuit by those?

Angus knows how. He can not use his magic while concentrating on flying, but you can use yours and I can use mine. Do you wish me to stun them?

Nona pondered the matter. The despots now knew about her, but should not know about Seqiro. “We must keep your secret as long as possible,” she decided. “You may need your magic as a surprise. I will try to divert them by illusion.”

So while Colene guided Angus toward what she called /R3, Nona fashioned a massive pair of illusions. One was of Angus, flying with his hands full. The other was of nothingness, where the real Angus was. Stave had shown how effective this ploy could be; now she was doing it on a larger scale. But a large illusion was harder to manage than a small one, because there was so much detail. Familiars would not be smart, but the despots guiding them would be alert for tricks. This had to be right.

She Grafted the two illusions, overlapping. Gradually she replaced the appearance of the real giant with the illusion giant, matching detail to detail. She could not see his back, but assumed that it matched the normal male configuration. When she had it as good as she could make it, she caused the Angus illusion to diverge from the nothingness illusion. This was the test.

Slowly they separated. Would the familiars follow the illusion? It was only visual, so if any were using smell, they would not be deceived.

Most of the birds followed the illusion. But Nona saw with dismay that one small hawk was not being fooled. If its despot realized—

Then the hawk dropped. Seqiro had stunned it. The despot would think that the illusion giant had somehow taken it out, perhaps by throwing something at it. They were escaping.

But she could not maintain the illusion indefinitely. Most magic was close and line-of-sight; only the familiars could operate at a distance, because they had identities of their own. Soon she would lose control, and the illusion would dissipate, and the familiars would cast about until they found the smell of the original.

“We need a better decoy,” Colene said, grasping the situation from Nona’s thought. “Okay, time for Phase Two. Angus, put us down—Seqiro, Darius, Nona, and me—then fly on with the others as if you’re going somewhere. So the familiars will think it’s the whole party, and will follow them.”

A faint illusion image of Angus appeared at the edge of his invisible hand, in miniature. “But where shall I carry them?” he asked.

“Back to the anchor, of course,” Colene said. “So they can complete their destiny, even if we mess up.”

And there it was, Nona realized with a shock: the manner that Provos’ memory of the future would be correct, even if Nona’s mission failed. It was coming true.

Colene glanced at her, mentally. All of them were now invisible, so there was no other way. “Right. Our guarantee is zilch.”

No guarantee of success. Somehow Nona had always believed that she would succeed, once she had gotten together with the visitors from the Virtual Mode. Now horrible doubt loomed. She shivered.

“Except that Nona will have to pass them through the anchor,” Darius said. “She must either succeed or survive.”

Bless him for that revelation, mixed as it was! She could not fail utterly.

Angus descended, while Nona continued to concentrate on the distant illusion. If she could only hold it long enough to let them separate…

The giant’s feet touched the ground, gently. He stood, then bent down. The four of them climbed off the hand.

Nona turned back to embrace a huge invisible finger. “If I don’t see you again, friend Angus—”

The small illusion of him returned. “It has been good with you, Nona. I will know if you succeed.”

“You will not be able to commune with the three you carry,” Nona said. “But you know where to take them.”

“I know.”

She was out of words and full of emotion. “I wish you had been my size,” she said. Then she opened her arms to the little illusion. He met her, and they kissed, in the manner of Earle and Kara.

It was too much distraction. The distant illusion of Angus disintegrated. But Nona maintained the close illusion of nothingness. “Go, friend Angus,” she said. “With my thanks, and my love.” For suddenly, this instant, it was true: she loved the giant from Jupiter, who had served her need so loyally. She knew it was a transitory emotion, and foolish considering their sizes, but that part of it would always remain with her.

“For that I do thank you,” the little image said.

Then the invisible giant flew up, and they were left on the ground. Nona concentrated on the illusion, until he was too far away; then she lost it, and he became visible. But he was at that point in the vicinity of the prior giant-illusion, so that the familiars would assume that he had always been there. He was still holding both hands up, as if still carrying a double burden.

“The legend!” Colene exclaimed. She was visible now; Nona had had to let their part of the illusion go when she focused on Angus. “You replayed it! That was beautiful.”

“Perhaps I am destined to love only the unobtainable,” Nona said sadly.

“I’m not so sure of that. I dreamed you got married.”

Nona looked at her. There was something dark about the girl’s thought, but she could not fathom it.

“We had better move,” Darius said. “If you can get a familiar, Nona, I can conjure us to where it goes.”

“How about directly to the nearest /R3?” Colene asked. “If I make you a map? There are four of those rads, so we must be halfway close to one.”

He shook his head. “That would be dangerous. I need to see where I am going, or to know it from prior experience. A familiar could show it much more accurately.”

“Okay. But we’d better get moving.”

Seqiro searched, but found no suitable unattached birds in the vicinity. The despots seemed to have taken them all. But then he found a fox, and stunned it.

Nona had never tamed a fox before. But then she had seldom tamed any animal, because of the need to conceal her magic. The principle was the same. She touched the fallen animal, and Seqiro enhanced her mental contact. It was more of a job than the bat had been, but she was able to do it.

Then she sent the fox running toward the third rad on the Head. While they waited for it to cover the distance, she picked a berry and magnified it into a giant berry, so that they could all have their fill of it, finishing their meal.

Despots approach.

That galvanized them. Nona tuned in on the fox. It was most of the way there. They clustered around Seqiro, and Darius brought out his magic icons and invoked them. Seqiro connected Darius’ mind to that of the familiar. Then they climbed onto the horse’s broad back, and Darius moved the icon.

Nona felt the awful wrenching. Then she found herself sliding off the horse. She managed to get her feet under her before landing on the ground.

They were almost at the base of the towering bulk of /R3; the fox had made excellent progress.

“God, that thing must be three hundred miles tall,” Colene said, awed. Her mental concept translated into approximately the right amount. “Somehow I didn’t think they would get this big, on this little planet.”

“Can we see /R4 from here?” Darius asked.

Colene studied the mountainous outline. “Actually we can see one of its /R4’s,” she agreed. She pointed. “See that twenty-mile-thick wart there? As I make it, that’s it.”

“Then I should be able to conjure us there from here,” he said. “Provided there is a safe place to land.”

“There they are!” someone called in the language of Oria. Nona jumped.

“Damn!” Colene swore. “They must have lured the fox, or spotted it. They’re on to us.”

They ran for the cover of the nearby forest. The man who had called saw them but was slow to give chase, as if waiting for reinforcements. That gave them a brief respite, but was hardly good news.

“They are becoming more apt at locating us,” Darius said as they passed beyond the first trees. “They may suspect where we are going, and have many of their number in this vicinity looking for us.”

“It may be that they know where the key rad is,” Nona said, breathing hard as she ran. “They would keep it secret from all theows, of course. But now—”

“Can the dialogue,” Colene snapped. “Seqiro, you take Darius and gallop the hell out of here. Decoy them away. We’ll get together again after.”

“But—” Nona started.

“You and I will go alone,” Colene said. “Invisible. Do it.”

“It is too far for you afoot,” Darius said.

“What do you mean, too far? I just walked across whole worlds!”

“If you take too long, the despots will catch you.”

“Oh.”

“I will conjure the two of you there before we ride away.” He brought out his Colene and Nona icons.

“Yeah, I guess you’d better,” Colene agreed reluctantly. She came to stand beside Nona.

Darius invoked his icons, and started to move them.

“There!” the man cried, spying horse and man.

Then the wrenching, and the scene was gone.

They landed tumbled on /R4. Colene righted herself, looked around, and suddenly dropped to the ground again. “God! I’m freaking out!” But the alien words meant nothing to Nona; they were not out of Seqiro’s mind-magic range.

Meanwhile Nona stood and gazed across at the ground of /R2 where they had been. She did not see any sign of man or horse, but that was to be expected. At least she had the comfort of knowing that the pair would be hard to catch, because the horse could do mind-magic and the man could conjure them away from the threat of capture.

Then she looked down at Colene, and realized that the girl was staring at her. Suddenly it registered: Colene was not used to being on a rad of this size. To her it looked as if Nona were standing sideways on an almost vertical cliff. For of course this rad projected from about the midpoint of the side of /R3, and they were on the side of /R4.

She tried to reassure the girl. “Do not be concerned. A person’s feet are always toward the center of the rad on which she stands. We experienced the same thing on Jupiter.”

“Yeah, but this is smaller and more intense, and I’ve been away,” Colene said. “I haven’t gotten my reactions realigned yet.” The words she spoke were unintelligible, but Nona was sure they related to her concern about falling.

“We can not fall.” To illustrate the point, Nona jumped.

Colene screamed.

But of course Nona landed immediately back on the surface. Colene, seeing that, laughed nervously, then got up the courage to stand. She remained anchored to the rad. Finally she gritted her teeth and made a little jump. She did not fly loose from the rad. She issued a shaky sigh.

Nona was glad that the girl had come to terms with the nature of walking on a rad, because they would be moving to ever-smaller rads to reach the key point. She would have explained about the way of it, before they left Seqiro, had it occurred to her. But now, alone with Colene, and not yet at the site for the anima—they couldn’t even talk to each other!

“Can. Some.”

The mind-magic! The girl had been learning it. Her power was little compared to that of the horse, but far better than none. “Then we go,” Nona said, speaking without vocalizing, to concentrate her thoughts. “Now. To the next rad.”

“Go,” Colene agreed the same way. “To Slash R Five.” The designation was clear, because they both knew it. Colene looked around. “There.” She pointed.

Then Nona saw the figure of a man. Was it a despot? She couldn’t take the chance. Quickly she fashioned a spell of nothingness to hide them both. She took Colene’s hand so that they could remain together without talking.

It turned out to be a fair distance, through fairly rough country, but they had no choice. This rad was tiny compared to its parent rad, and minuscule compared to the one from which they had been conjured, but it was far from the smallest. Nona relaxed the nothingness spell once they were sure they were not being pursued, so that she would be free to do other magic. When they came to a difficult ravine, she held Colene in her arms and flew across it. She could not go far that way, for the extra weight was extremely tiring, but for this short hop it really helped. Mostly they just walked, and talked. Colene was getting better with practice, but Nona still had to interpolate to re-create the full thoughts. The effort helped take her mind off her doubt about her situation.

“One thing I want to know,” Colene said approximately, though Nona was sure she had the essence. “This world is in animus phase, right? It’s a man’s world. So how come you can do major magic? Even considering that you’re the ninth.”

“It is because of the flow of the current of magic,” Nona tried to explain. It would have been so much easier with the horse present! “It originates at the center of the universe and flows out along the filaments to every part of it. It spreads out at each world, in an umbra, a field, with a current which the despot men can tap and adapt. I, too, can tap that current, because of my special nature.”

“But when you bring the anima, then what happens?”

“Then the current changes, and flows the wrong way for the despot men. They flow along the lines of the first of the first, but the anima will be the last of the last. The lastborn woman instead of the firstborn man.”

“So then why won’t you lose your power of magic also, when they do?”

“Because I am the key person, by order of birth and gender. I am the opposite, in perfect balance, able to draw on the flow from either side. When the flow changes, that other side will be the primary one. No man will be able to draw on it any more, except when there is a first of the first for nine generations, who will be able to travel to the center of the universe and change it as Earle did.”

“Well, maybe,” Colene said, evidently not really understanding it. “But shouldn’t the reversal point be at the spike? We’re headed off to the side.”

“It is not really a reversal, but a change,” Nona tried to explain. “The main flow remains from the center of the universe to the rest, but the field around our world will be changed, to be somewhat skew, in a manner only the lastborn women will be able to address.”

“Like a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field!” Colene exclaimed. Nona found this incomprehensible, so did not argue.

But in a moment the girl had another question. “Angus—he’s of the animus. So what happens to him when it changes? Does he pitch headfirst into the sea?”

“Angus is not of this world,” Nona explained. “He responds to the rule of his own world, Jupiter. He did not lose his power when we crossed that small anima world.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m glad. He’s nice. Too bad you couldn’t have been his size.”

“A legend can have a happy ending,” Nona said.

“You’ll have one too. You’ll be queen.”

“True,” Nona said without enthusiasm.

“Well, I’ll sure be glad when it’s done and you’re queen and I can go back on the Virtual Mode with my horse and my man.”

The girl was wary of the effect another woman could have on such a horse and such a man. Nona could appreciate why. Nona herself remained upset by the thought of Stave and the rabble women, though Stave would gladly have stayed with her if it had been possible. How much greater must be Colene’s concern, for she had truly wondrous companions. Darius was a man among men, with powerful magic, and Seqiro was a horse among horses, wonderful to be with. It had been a great act of necessity and trust for Colene to leave both man and horse behind while she revisited her own world. She surely longed to reach the safety of Darius’ world, and to settle there to be one with him and Seqiro. How well Nona understood!

They were near the /R5 rad when darkness closed, but not near enough. Nona made tent material and bedding material and an assortment of foods, and they settled for the night.

“You’re so beautiful and so talented and so mature and so nice,” Colene remarked. “You have so much going for you. I’m jealous. I really am.”

She was jealous of Nona! What irony.

“Because both Darius and Seqiro like you and admire your magic.”

“I feel the same about them,” Nona said.

“Because you are halfway in love with both of them,” the girl continued.

“That’s not true!” Nona exclaimed, appalled.

“Isn’t it? You know that Earle in the Jupiter legend looks like a cross between Angus and Darius, and Kara looks like you. So it was a simulated romance between you and Darius, since Angus is out of reach.”

And Nona realized with expanding horror that Colene was right. Stave—it was not just that he was indulging his masculine appetite with other women. It was that Nona had found a stern, powerful, and magic man, and a completely understanding and mentally encompassing horse, and she longed to be with both. She craved distant adventure and passion, and both man and horse were creatures of exactly that, with their Virtual Mode.

But neither was hers to claim. “Oh, Colene, I would never—”

“I know you wouldn’t. Seqiro showed me how you feel and how you are. You’re better than me in every way, especially decency. You have the kind of honor Darius has, and I don’t. But the choice may not be yours to make. It may be theirs.”

Nona felt the tears on her face. “Colene, I—”

“I dreamed you married Darius, and I’m not fool enough to think it can’t happen.”

Nona stared at her, stricken.

“So I guess you can see why I don’t want you on the Virtual Mode,” the girl continued relentlessly. “Because if you go there, I’m doomed.”

“Of course. I will remain here. I will be queen.” But it was grief, not joy, in the decision.

NEXT morning they reached the next rad. This one they would be able to traverse in minutes. It was only, according to Colene’s alien measurement, about one mile in diameter. It seemed to be roughly parallel to the hugely looming grandparent rad, /R3, which was itself in a similar relation to R1, the Body of Oria. But their feet pointed straight down toward the center of /R5. Colene seemed to be adjusting, mainly by not looking up.

There were trees and brush here, the same size as on the main planet. The sizes of things were in scale with their worlds, but this was not a separate world, only a projection of a world. They stayed under the trees when they could, avoiding exposure. Then, as they approached /R6, which was about the size of the despots’ castle at home, they paused. For there, circling lazily above it, was a buzzard.

“That may be a despot familiar,” Nona whispered.

“Well, they have to be watching the sites,” Colene said. “Probably just one despot each, so as not to use too many personnel and give away the fact that there’s something important there.” Nona was having very little difficulty understanding her now, because during their close association of the past day and night their mental rapport had been enhanced. The girl saw them as rivals for a man, but Nona liked Colene as well as she liked Darius or Seqiro. She wished she could have them all for friends. She knew Colene would not understand that, however.

So she addressed the external problem instead. “Yes, of course. But one despot male will be enough to counter me. I had thought at first that Darius would be here to conjure him away, or Seqiro, to give him a bad mind. Alone, I fear I can not accomplish my mission.”

“Well, you aren’t exactly alone, you know.”

Nona looked at her. “I apologize; I did not mean to disparage you. But you lack the magic of the others, and I fear that only strong magic will suffice.”

“I have a little magic, remember,” the girl said. “We’re talking, aren’t we?”

“Yes, of course; you are getting the mind-magic. But my mind is open to you, and we know each other; we are attuned. Can you communicate with a strange despot?”

Colene grimaced. “I don’t think so. And I sure couldn’t stop him, anyway. So maybe I’m not much use. But maybe I can do something. If worse comes to worst, maybe we can get Darius back in here to take out that despot.”

“If his coming doesn’t bring other despots.”

“Yeah. Let me try.” She concentrated, evidently reaching out mentally.

Meanwhile, Nona made a new spell of nothingness to cover them. She could have changed her own appearance somewhat, using the magic Keli had taught her, but that would not conceal them. The familiar would be able to smell them, so invisibility wouldn’t be effective long either, unless she took out the bird, but it might help against an inattentive despot.

“Good God!” the girl exclaimed. “It’s Naylor!”

Nona was surprised. “The knave?”

“I must’ve tuned in to him, some, before, without realizing! That’s one joker I’ll never forget. He tried to rape me!”

Nona remembered the memory-vision of rape Seqiro had shown her. “That is horrible, Colene! Then you are afraid of him.”

“Afraid, hell! I want his ass on a burning-hot poker!”

The images were obscure, but the emotion came through. It was not fear but anger the girl felt. Unfortunately anger was not sufficient. If Knave Naylor saw Colene again, he would surely use his magic to incapacitate her, and then he would finish what he had started before. And Nona still would not be able to complete her mission, because he would be able to stun Colene and then turn against Nona. “We dare not approach him,” Nona said.

Colene was quiet for a while. Then she spoke with a grimness that was almost frightening. “The way I see it, we have to get this job done. Because otherwise you won’t be queen, and the rest of us won’t be able to get away from this reality. We’ll be stuck forever in the universe of Julia, and you will take my man and horse from me, no matter how hard you try not to. So I’m going to have to use my nerve.”

“Your nerve? Colene, you may have courage, but that will not stop a despot! And this one—surely he lusts for you yet, and is angry. You must not let him see you.”

“You got it backwards, sister. He must not see you. So he won’t know you’re here. He must see me. I’m perfect to distract him, because of his grudge against me. I’ll be the last decoy. I’ll lead him off the site, so you can go there and do your thing while he’s trying to do his thing with me.”

“But Colene! He will rape you!”

“I’ve been raped before,” the girt said. “If I can fight enough to take his whole attention long enough, you can finish. Then the power will be yours, and you can destroy him. I won’t say it’s a way I like, but it’s our best bet.”

“I could not ask you to do that!” Nona protested. “It was bad enough when Stave undertook my breedings, and he—he really wanted to be with those women. You don’t want it at all. You hate rape. Your loathing and rage are coming through to me. It is the worst possible risk for you.”

“That’s why it takes nerve,” Colene said. “Suicidal nerve. The truth is, I have a deathwish, and it drives me to flirt with death and destruction. And rape. Same thing, maybe. I don’t like it, but I can’t help it. I’m not nice like you. I’ve got to try this. But you’d better be quick with your mission, because after I lose, you lose too. He won’t stop with one—not when the other looks like you. Not when it’s the fate of all the despots on the line.”

“But—”

“Make me visible. You stay invisible. When I get him off the point, you go there. You don’t need me to count off, any more. /R7 will be the seventh around /R6, the way we’ve been counting, and it’ll be only the size of your two hands splayed. /R8 will be smaller than your little fingernail. /R9 will be too small for you to see. But you’ll know where it is. Get on it, woman.”

Nona liked no part of this, but was helpless against the girl’s determination. It was a possible solution, and if she could act quickly enough, she might succeed.

Colene, visible, walked to the crevice between /R5 and /R6, stopping at the edge of the little ring-sea there. She reached up and touched /R6, then drew up her feet. In a moment she was standing on /R6, her head pointed toward /R5. She had learned the way of it.

Nona, invisible, flew up toward /R7, landing a short distance from it. Colene was right: there was evil Knave Naylor, sitting on /R7 and looking supremely bored. He was using his magic to make ants float away from their nest, struggling, to land in the puddle circling the base of the rad. Every so often his eyes would go vague, and she knew he was drawing instead on the vision of the familiar, searching for anyone who might be approaching. He was hardly working at it, not expecting anything to happen. But the moment he did spy anything, he would be formidable. The knave might not be a nice man, but be did have passions.

There was a noise. Naylor looked, and spied Colene.

“The alien theow bitch!” he exclaimed, amazed. The vulture veered and flew down. “Where is the man?”

“My man isn’t here,” Colene said, but her words were unintelligible to the knave. “It’s just you and me, you misbegotten animal-part!” The last insult was beyond Nona’s power to decipher, but she was sure that had Naylor understood it, he would have been enraged.

The vulture flew near the girl, circling her, trying to sniff out any companion. But there was none. Nona was on the other side, hunched amidst a copse of saplings, hoping the bird did not smell her.

Naylor took a step toward Colene. “No man? You’re a decoy, then! He’s guarding the theow bitch at another site.”

Colene’s bravado became seeming fright. She retreated.

Naylor strode after her. “You can’t escape! You and I have unfinished business.”

The girl turned and fled, running around the curve of the rad. Naylor extended his magic and caused her to float up, her feet moving helplessly, and she still tried to run. He held her there, struggling in the air, while he took his time walking across to her. He was still wary of the possible proximity of her man, with his terrible magic.

Nona had her chance, thanks to Colene’s suicidal bravery. She walked quietly to /R7. It was a miniature of the rads they had been traversing. Its little head pointed up. She counted off from the head, until she found /R8, which was down toward its inwardly curving base. It was about the size of the head of a fancy ornamental pin.

Colene screamed. Nona jumped, and looked to see the knave’s hands on the girl. He was ripping off her odd clothing, exposing her body, and she was unable to move her limbs to resist. Nona had to try to help her.

Stick to your business! The thought came through with surprising clarity. The girl might be screaming, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She was putting on a show for the man, keeping him distracted. There was fear in her thought, but also rage, and determination. She was going to make this scene last as long as she could. Nona could not be concerned with her, right now; she had to get her own business done, in time to save Colene and the world.

But now how was she supposed to find /R9? It was, as Colene had warned, too small to see. Even its extended filament was too small.

But Nona did not have to see it. She was the ninth: she should be able to sense it. She extended her finger to the place it had to be, at the base of the head of the /R8 pin. Then she extended her sensitivity, trying to tune in on it as she would with a familiar.

She felt a tingle. It was there! The key filament!

“Nona!” It was Colene, calling verbally. “He sees you! You’re visible!”

Nona glanced back over her shoulder. Naylor had let go of the naked girl and was starting toward Nona. He was about to use his magic on her. She had concentrated so intensely on the key point that she had let her other magic go—and now she could not use her magic in her defense without losing that delicately tingling connection.

But the knave was reorienting his magic too. Colene dropped to the ground behind him. He could not focus his magic on both Colene and Nona, and he knew that Nona was the more dangerous one. But the girl would not let him go. She bounded up immediately and launched herself at the man from behind. She tackled him, causing him to fall.

Naylor cursed and tried to strike at her with his fist. But Colene caught his hand with one of hers, brought it to her mouth, and bit it. He yelled with the pain, for the moment forgetting about Nona. The girl was truly fighting him, with her suicidal fury, tooth and nail; it was impossible for him to ignore her. Colene so desperately wanted to escape with her man and horse to the Virtual Mode, so as to be free of Nona, that she was absolutely fearless and without restraint.

Nona concentrated on the tingle. She sent her spirit into it, and suddenly she saw the key filament, magnified enormously. It seemed to surround her, its power expanding.

A hand fell heavily on her shoulder. “Get away from there!” Naylor cried.

Nona realized that he must have used his magic to stun Colene, and now was free to stop Nona. She might fight him on an almost even basis if she let go of her contact with the filament. But what would be the point? She would have saved herself at the expense of her destiny.

The hand was trying to pull her away. The fingers dug cruelly into the flesh of her shoulder. But his magic was not fastening on her, to make her lose her volition. Because he was using that to keep Colene suspended in air, still struggling; the girl was far more dangerous to him physically than Nona was, because of her determination and courage.

Nona wrenched her shoulder away and reoriented on the filament. But he grabbed at her again.

“You know your family is gone?” Naylor demanded of her. “We declared them nonproductive, a burden on society, and they disappeared. You are alone.”

Nona was stricken. Her dear mother and father!

“Don’t listen to him!” Colene screamed. “He’s trying to distract you without magic!”

Because he was using his magic to restrain Colene. He was using anything he had—and he might be lying.

Nona threw the rest of her being into the connection with the filament. “Anima, invoke!” she cried with her voice and soul.

She felt herself falling into it. She passed into the /R9 filament, and through the /R9 rad, and the /R8 rad, and on through the series of them, so swiftly that it was no time, yet also nine generations. She expanded to embrace the whole world with her being,

Then she was back in her body, at the seventh rad, and the magic was off her. She stood, throwing off Knave Naylor’s hand. She invoked her magic, and caused him to float helplessly. He had no magic to oppose her.

The anima had come.

But what was she to do with him? She could not let him go; he would only attack someone again. He was a rapist.

Then she knew. The four of them had visited just one of the many occupied chambers inside the world. There were many others, and surely some were more brutal than others. She had a place for him.

Colene lay nearby, naked and bruised from the fight and the fall when Naylor’s magic let her go. Nona went to her and touched her, healing her. The girl sat up. “Did he—?” Nona asked, but already she knew that the man had not gotten that far. How could any man rape a spitfire like that?

“No,” Colene said. “Did you—?”

“Yes. It has changed. No man has magic now.”

“So the women have it?”

“No. But their daughters will. The age of the despots is over.”

“And we can go back on the Virtual Mode,” Colene said.

“Yes. But first you must get dressed.”

Colene looked down at herself, and laughed.

AFTER that it was straightforward. Angus returned to carry them back to Nona’s home village, where the celebration was in progress. The despots were moving out of their castles all across Oria, though they could have defended them. The question was whether it was to be a peaceful transition or a violent one, and the despots preferred to keep it peaceful. That way they would not be slaughtered when the magic came to the daughters and finally overwhelmed them.

Riding for the day on the giant’s hand, they discussed what was to be. “What will be your first act as queen?” Colene inquired.

“Oh, of course I will honor the deal we made with the rabble, and allow four thousand of them to emerge to the surface.”

“Well, that was easy,” Colene said. “What about your second?”

“I will banish Knave Naylor to the nether region reported to have the ugliest and most aggressive women. He will learn about rape!”

Colene laughed so hard she nearly rolled off the hand. “The punishment sure fits the crime!” Then she sobered. “And what about the third?”

Nona considered. “Then I suppose I will have to choose a man to marry. It is expected; there have to be offspring.”

“That’s easy! You’ve got Stave.”

“I suppose I do,” Nona agreed. “I do owe him that. He is certainly a worthy man.” It should not be any worse with him than with any other, she thought, considering that she didn’t want to marry at all.

What did she want? She wanted an impossible dream. She wanted to go with the bold girl and the magic man and the magic horse, and explore the other universes. To be free, unbound, without obligation to strangers. But she couldn’t say that.

“So I guess you wouldn’t even want to do anything crazy, like bugging out on it all. Like going on the Virtual Mode, where you wouldn’t be queen, and maybe wouldn’t even have any magic, and might get wiped out at any time.”

The girl’s words were in her own idiom, but her meaning was clear, thanks to Seqiro’s translation. It was indeed her foolish desire. But Nona knew the girl did not want her along, for excellent reason. So she would not ask. She averted her face, trying to stifle the tears.

“Damn it, woman!” Colene exclaimed. “Not only are you prettier than me, and have way more magic than I ever will, and you can play music the way I never could, you’re way nicer too! You’re everything I wish I was!”

“No, you have such courage and generosity,” Nona protested. “You went back to your world to get the information I needed, and you risked your life to fight a despot to give me time. I owe you so much, and I would trade places with you, were it possible. You are the kind of decisive person I will never be. You deserve to be queen, as I do not.” In fact Colene might even like it, as Nona did not. “Perhaps I could teach you some of my music, before you go. I have taught music to a number of students. Seqiro makes it easy to tame familiars, and perhaps he can help similarly with music. In just a few hours, perhaps—”

“You’re the very last woman I want near my man or my horse! You could take them both from me, just like that.”

“I am sorry,” Nona said. “But when you go, you can close down that anchor, and—”

“We do need to close down an anchor,” Colene said. “Because Provos and I found a bad mental monster near Darius’ anchor, and it may be lurking there again, so we won’t get through. If We take out an anchor, the realities will spin until we latch onto a new one, and then the Virtual Mode will stabilize again, and it’ll be all new paths, but we should be able to get through. We hope.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“But it doesn’t have to be your anchor. Provos is going home; she’s through with the Virtual Mode, and Slick and Esta will never want to go back to Earth. So that’s the one to dump. After we go there with her, on the familiar route, to be sure she’s safe. We don’t want to change an anchor first, because there might be a new sea or something cutting her off from hers.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Nona said. “You must do what you feel is best.”

“So will you come with us?”

Nona blinked. “You can not mean—”

“Listen, I did some thinking, and I realized that I’m sort of right between you and Esta. You’re older and better than I am, and Esta’s younger and suffered worse than I ever did. I’m sort of helping her to be more like me, to stand up for herself and know she’s worth something, no matter what happened before. But meanwhile how do I get better myself? And what I realized was that if I ever want to be anything like you, I’d better start acting more mature. It’s no good to torpedo someone else who doesn’t deserve it. I’ve just got to improve myself. To damn well learn to be the kind of person I want to be. To study you. Darius and Seqiro like you, and Provos doesn’t care, and I—I thought you’d want to be queen, but Seqiro says you’d just about rather die, and I know about that sort of feeling. So I want you too. Maybe it’s my suicidal nature again, my deathwish, forcing me to flirt with the worst possible threats. I know how there’s that attraction between you and Darius. Because you’re both great people, and I do like you too, and maybe I can learn enough from you to be what I want to be, and win him fair and square, and if I can’t, then I don’t deserve him. And in that case, there’s nobody I’d rather have marry him or whatever than you. So will you come?”

Nona gazed at Colene for a moment, mentally untangling her convoluted logic. She had called the girl brave and generous. How right she had been! Then her last barrier fell, and she dissolved into tears.

THE two great red roses of the Megaplayers’ stone-hammered dulcimer were glowing. The anima had come, and changed them, and the way was open.

Nona held the hand of the girl Esta, for Nona was an anchor person and could conduct another person across the Virtual Mode. Yet it was Esta who had the greater experience here, and she was glad to share all she knew of it. Darius conducted the man Slick, leaving Provos and Colene to show the way. Seqiro, loaded with the supplies they had recovered from the former despots, including Colene’s strange science-magic bicycle machine, followed, keeping them all in touch with each other. There were timid dragons and other oddities. It was exactly the kind of adventure Nona delighted in.

Then they stood at Provos’ anchor and watched the woman, man, and girl cross out of the Virtual Mode. It was done, and Provos had already forgotten almost their entire association. She saw no more than the bright future for herself and her family. Only Esta turned back momentarily, to wave. Then Provos did the final thing, and the anchor let go.

The forested world spun around and through the other forested realm in which the four of them stood. Nona was awed, though she had been warned. Whole sections of scenery collided without colliding, and the nature of reality changed fantastically around them.

Then it stopped. Things stabilized. Another anchor had been set. A new Virtual Mode had formed. Before them stood the strangest monster Nona could have imagined.

“Uh-oh,” Colene said.