Fractal Mode

CHAPTER 8—SECRET

NONA came out of the story, the understanding forming. Kara the giantess had looked exactly like Nona herself; she had seen it in the picture in Angus’ mind. This myth explained not only the coming of the animus but also the origin of mankind on Oria itself.

“No,” Angus said, answering her thought. “Mankind was there on your world and mine long before then. It merely explains the arrival on your world of two whom you call Megaplayers, one of them my size, the other much larger. Perhaps Kara did not look like you; that was my fancy. But it is one of our stories of the way of the universe, and it suggests how those instruments of ours came to your world.”

“Must I go to the origin of the universe, as Earle did?” Nona asked, appalled.

“I think not. The animus, as our myth has it, flows from the origin to the smaller worlds. But the anima is opposite. That should flow the other way.”

“The other way!” Nona exclaimed, seeing it. “But there are many small worlds, and only one master world. How can we know which one?”

“I suspect that it is no single world, but any world,” Angus said. “Each world can be changed from its own proper source. It may be that the animus sweeps all worlds at once, while the anima takes one world at a time, as its folk discover how to do it. Thus we should be subject to periods of complete animus, followed by gradually increasing anima, until some champion invokes the animus again for all.”

“The little world we stopped at on the way here!” Colene exclaimed. “They had just converted to anima! They had found the way.”

“Perhaps they can tell you, then,” Angus said. “It should be simply a matter of standing over the correct spot, playing your music, and invoicing the anima. But I must warn you—”

“That it won’t change everything immediately,” Nona said. “That I now understand. But the power of the despots will be curtailed, and the next generation will be ours.”

“Note that in the legend, Earle and Kara did not remain to face their people after the change to animus,” Angus said. “Had they done so, they might have encountered unkind treatment at the hands of the amazons, who would have wielded considerable power for a time, even without their magic. So they went anonymously to a new world, escaping that consequence.”

Nona considered that. She had assumed before coming here that the change would be instant and complete, with the men losing their magic and the women gaining it, according to their orders of birth. That way she would have been queen immediately. That was not actually a role that appealed to her. She desired to be queen no more than she desired to be a theow housewife; both were confining for life. She was doing this not for any personal gain, but for the welfare of her people. It was now apparent that the anima, when long established, was no better than the animus; both were merely vehicles for the transmittal of power. But it seemed best that they be changed every so often, to clear out corruption and give new folk a chance to do better.

So she would not be queen. She might instead be a martyr, as the despots struck savagely in revenge for their loss of heredity. That was even worse. Still, she had to do it, if only because now that she had come here she was known, and her family and friends would suffer if the despots retained power.

“Not so, lovely little lady,” Angus said, receiving her thought. “You will be the only person on your world with full magic. You will therefore be queen immediately, having the power. You will have to organize your people and institute the new order, abolishing the old. Then there will be no threat to those close to you.”

“But I am no leader!” Nona protested. “I can not be ruthless!”

“Riding the tiger,” Colene murmured. In her mind was a picture of a young woman on the back of a monstrous ugly feline, in control only so long as she did not dismount.

“However, interpretation leads to further insights about the spread of man across the worlds,” Angus said. “In the legend, they had the secret of size change, and it was presumed that those who crossed between the worlds invoked that magic to become the appropriate size for that world. But their instruments did not follow; Earle did not think to make them conform. Nothing is said about animals and plants, which must have been brought by the colonizing explorers. But there would have been similar magic for them, for all things are in proportion to the size of their worlds. Yet I know of no such magic. No one in real life can change size. Was the magic lost after the initial colonization? The legend suggests otherwise, for Earle and Kara were different sizes, yet each changed to become another size. Why, then, can we not discover or remember the secret? I have quested through the ruins of past times, and found no record of any such magic. I do not believe that it exists.”

“But folk are different sizes!” Nona protested. “We differ from you, and from the tiny folk of the little world we passed. We know this is the case.”

“Folk are different,” he agreed. “But there may be no magic about that.”

Nona shook her head, confused. “But there has to be! How else could they become the right sizes?”

Angus glanced at the others. “I wonder whether any of your companions from other realms have ideas on this?”

“Sure,” the intense young Colene said immediately. “Evolution.” Nona heard the word, but the concept was too complicated to fathom.

Angus, however, was interested. “This is a science concept?”

“It sure is,” Colene agreed. “It means that plants and animals change little by little, over the millennia, the fittest surviving, the unfit dying. They grow small or large, depending on what works best. In this reality it would mean that they evolve to fit the worlds they are on; there must be an advantage to being the right size for each.”

“Then how would you interpret the presence of small musical instruments here, or large ones on the little world of Oria?”

“Easy. The people brought them along when they settled. But each generation changed in size, while the instruments didn’t, so finally the people couldn’t play them, and had to make new ones that matched their size. I admit I find the acoustics hard to believe; the longer strings and larger sounding chambers in the large instruments should play deeper notes than the small ones, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. But then big people like you should collapse under their own weight—square-cube ratio, you know—but you don’t, and Jupiter doesn’t have any stronger gravity than Oria; we’re the same weight here as we are there. But even so, you should feel twice as much strain on your feet, and you don’t, so science just doesn’t apply. So okay, the rest of science doesn’t work here, but maybe evolution does. That hammered dulcimer Nona just played belonged to your distant ancestors, who were small when they came here. And those big instruments on Oria belonged to folk your size, before they evolved down to regular size for that world.”

“I can’t make sense of this!” Nona said, her mind awhirl. “There must be size spells!”

“I admit it is difficult to believe,” Angus said. “But it is just one of those impossible things we are constrained to accept. The archaeological evidence indicates that Colene is correct. We have found small bones and tools, and larger ones, and larger still, and the smallest are the oldest. It happened gradually, for people and animals and trees too.”

“But Earle and Kara—”

“A legend is only a story,” Angus said. “A simplified memory, an attempt to explain what we otherwise have difficulty understanding. We see the relics of past times, and they are the wrong size, so we suggest that magic was responsible. But in this case there seems to be another explanation, and Colene’s ready appreciation of it satisfies me that she is indeed from a different kind of place.”

“But if it happened slowly,” Nona said, trying hard to reason out the consequences of this incredible notion, “then Earle—Kara—”

“Did not invoke magic to change size,” Angus finished. “True. If they existed at all, it was not in the fashion described. That must be a happy ending put on to satisfy more recent listeners. But it does suggest that there was travel in each direction. Small folk came from Oria to Jupiter, and colonized it, and slowly grew large. Then, later, large folk must have returned to Oria and colonized it again, and slowly grown small. The myth and the physical remnants agree on this; only the particular manner and timing of it remain obscure.”

“But then the Megaplayers—”

He smiled sadly. “Are merely your name for ordinary folk like me, on this larger world. I have no magic to help you, pretty little woman. Even if I went to Oria, I would have no more power than you, except that I could step on despots. In fact I would have less, for I can not compel loyalty to your cause by playing a melody, and I could not bring the anima to Oria no matter how hard I tried. None of the folk of Jupiter could,”

“But my mother told me to seek the Megaplayers!” Nona was near tears of confusion and frustration.

“Perhaps she spoke wisely,” Angus said. “I can not do such magic myself, but I may be able to advise you in such a way as to enable you to do it yourself. Though I believe there is no magic of living size change, there obviously is the magic of animus and anima, and location is surely vital to it. I believe if you ask the folk of the smaller world you passed, they will tell you that they had a woman of the appropriate lineage, and that she stood at the appropriate site and invoked the anima for her world. That is what you must do.”

“I can change it right on Oria?” Nona asked, amazed.

“That is my belief. You are the ninth of the ninth. There is surely a corresponding site on your world that will resonate to your magic. Unfortunately I do not know where that would be. There are so many rads on each world, and so many rads on each rad, that a person could spend a lifetime traveling to each one and trying to invoke the magic, and die before finding the right one.”

“The ninth of the ninth,” Nona said. “That must be the one.”

“Undoubtedly. But where does the count start, and in what direction does it proceed?”

Nona was unable to answer. She had no idea how to count rads. She had never thought of such a thing before.

“Maybe the little folk on that world we passed,” Colene said. “Since they did do it, they have to know.”

“Yes, and they might even be willing to tell you,” Angus said. “But their world is not the same as yours, so their site on it would differ accordingly. It would not work for you. And it may be that they did not do it by counting, but found it by chance.”

Colene nodded soberly. “Probably wasted effort,” she agreed. “What we need is a solid, sensible system of counting, and I guess that doesn’t exist in this universe. Otherwise these changeovers would be more common than they are.”

“Such a system does exist in your universe?” Angus inquired.

“Oh, sure, it must. They know a lot about fractals. I never got into it deeply, but the library has whole books—” She paused with realization. “I could probably find out, on Earth! If I got to the right library, or maybe found the right person. Only I can’t get back to Earth, because we can’t use our anchor. That’s why we were trying to help Nona, so she could get rid of the animus and it would stop interfering with our access to the Virtual Mode.”

“I am not clear about the nature of this anchor,” Angus said. “I gather it is a portal.”

Nona was glad to hear the question, because the concept confused her too. She had seen the party appear, and understood that they could not go back, but it was alien magic. Seqiro had explained the Virtual Mode to her, but her comprehension remained limited.

“It is a connection to a particular reality,” Darius said. “The Virtual Mode is like a slanting ramp, crossing many levels, and each level is a reality—an entire universe. But it has to be anchored in five places, or it spins wildly. Each anchor ties it to one reality, and all of us on the Mode can pass through those anchors and remain in their realities. We came through Nona’s anchor, and so we are here. But the animus prevents us from returning through it and resuming our journey to my home reality.”

Angus’ brow furrowed. “Is this anchor a place or a person?”

“Both. The person makes it, by committing to it when the Virtual Mode offers. But it is also the place where that person stands when that commitment is made.”

“What happens when the person moves away from that place?”

“Nothing,” Darius said. “The person can go anywhere in the anchored reality, or in the Virtual Mode, which is like a reality of its own made from thin strips of all the other realities it crosses. Nona could go to any of our home realities, just as we came to hers. But only Nona, of all those native to her reality, can use that anchor, and only she can free it. Except for the interference of the animus.”

“Free it?” Angus asked.

“She committed it; she can uncommit it. Then she will be left in her own reality, and the rest of us will be on the Virtual Mode seeking other realities.”

“Suppose she frees it when the rest of you are on this side of the anchor?”

Darius paused. So did the others; their mutual surprise was shared by Seqiro, so that all knew that all felt it.

“We could be trapped!” Colene said after a moment.

“I’m not sure of that,” Darius said. “It would leave a Virtual Mode with no anchor people on it.” But he was uneasy. His memory, now shared by the others, suggested that many people had entered Virtual Modes, and few had returned to their original anchors. Was this what happened?

“I think Nona is more critical to your welfare than you thought,” Angus said. “At least while you are in her reality. But from what you say, you are not necessarily safe while on the Mode, because you are always in some slice of reality, and if one of you was killed, control over that anchor would be lost and you would be destabilized.”

“It’s no safe place,” Colene agreed. “Only someone desperate or halfway suicidal should risk it.” There was an undercurrent there that appalled Nona; the girl was speaking of herself.

“I have a conjecture,” Angus said. “Nona is the key person for the anima. She has full magic, and the ability to enlist others with her music. When she stands on the correct spot and invokes the anima, it will spread across her world. This suggests that she has the power to nullify the animus. That power is normally limited, but can still nullify it for particular people when she tries, as we have seen here. We have all become anima. That may not matter for those of you of other universes, but it does for me. I am helping her now because she has brought me into the anima, at least in spirit. My powers are at her disposal.”

“But I seek no power over you,” Nona protested. “I only want to make my world better.”

“You have it, nonetheless,” Angus said. “If you were my size, and wished to marry me, I would marry you, even as Kara married Earle after he brought her into the animus. But that is not my thought. It is that if you can nullify the animus for single people elsewhere, and for the entire world at the nines spot, you must be able to have effect at the site of this anchor. You should be able to nullify the animus and allow the others to return to their Virtual Mode.”

Again they paused in surprise. That did make sense.

“We can go back!” Colene exclaimed.

“No,” Provos said almost at the same time. “Her power was not that great. She was able to enable only the smaller part of the group to pass.”

“She remembers!” Colene said.

“But she has already forgotten mentioning it,” Darius added. “She can’t remember what she has told us, so doesn’t speak often.” Indeed, Provos was looking perplexed, catching on that she must have said something, but not yet knowing what it was. It was yet to be triggered by their prior dialogue.

“But that means that only one or two of us can pass through,” Colene said. “Which ones?”

“You must be one,” Angus pointed out. “Since you alone know the way around your world. You will go and return with the information. Assuming one other can go with you, which should it be?”

“Seqiro!” Colene said instantly.

“Both,” Provos said.

“Is that number or mass?” Darius asked, asking the question the woman had just answered. Then, realizing that he would have to say more for her to understand the question, he added: “The people who pass back through the anchor.”

“Which means the horse is too big,” Nona said, catching on to the peculiarities of this dialogue. “So it must be you, Darius. Unless—”

“I did,” Provos said.

“Who else went through the anchor with Colene?” Darius asked, quickly making the question fit the answer.

And that seemed to be it. Colene and Provos would go, leaving Darius and Seqiro behind. Nona realized that one thing was sure: Colene would do her utmost to return, rather than to be cut off from her man and her horse. And Provos, with her memory of things to come, should be able to help her considerably.

Angus had indeed been a big help, not because of his size or any power of magic, but because of what he knew of legend, and his ability to reason.

But the moment they addressed the prospect of a partial return, they realized that there was more to consider. “We can’t just go back to Oria, walk up to the anchor, and move two of us through,” Colene said. “The despots are out looking for us, and you can bet they have people watching the East Valley. They’ll throw us in chains the moment we land there.”

Again Angus had a good suggestion. “When you travel the filament, you pass many worlds. Most are so small you can not even see them, but large ones are passed too. If you go to a world beyond yours, then return from there to the head of Oria, you may elude the ambush of the despots.”

Colene gazed up at him. “You are some kind of genius, Angus!” she exclaimed. “If you were my size, I’d kiss you.”

His image appeared before her, her size. “Really?” the image asked.

Colene tried to kiss the image, but her head passed right through without resistance. The image laughed.

Colene stepped back and reconsidered. “Nona! Seqiro! Give me an image.”

Obligingly Nona made an image of Colene, standing beside her, and the horse enabled Colene to identify with that image, so that she could control it directly. Now the illusion girl stepped toward the Angus image, embraced it, and kissed it resoundingly. “But I won’t go as far as Kara did,” her image said, laughing.

The Angus image shook its head. “It is hard to believe that you are unhappy,” it said, and faded out.

“It is getting late in the day,” Darius said. “We had better rest, and return tomorrow. We will still have an extended job of conjuring to do when we arrive on Oria, to get from the West Spike to the East Valley.”

“That should not be a problem,” Angus said.

“Not for you,” Darius agreed. “You could fly the length of that world in a day. But only Nona can fly, in our group; the rest must walk or be conjured from place to place, tediously.”

“No problem for me or for you,” Angus said. “Because of course I am coming with you. My service to Nona will not be complete until she ushers in the anima.”

Nona turned to stare up at him. “You will do that? Go to Oria and carry us?”

“This is the nature of my commitment,” Angus said. “As it was with Kara and Earle. The legend may not be technically accurate, but the substance is correct. I will help you in whatever way I can. So far I have done so with my mind, but I will do so with my body also. This is one advantage of not being your size.” He glanced down at Colene as if regretting that advantage.

Nona felt like kissing him herself. His presence on Oria would enormously simplify their problems there.

THEY had a comfortable night in a box with separate chambers for each, including the horse, and abundant pillows. Soon enough the others were asleep, but Nona lay awake. They had accomplished much, but much remained, and she feared that their future course would not be easy.

A man appeared in her chamber. It was the image of Angus. “Since you and I and Seqiro remain awake, let us talk,” he said.

Nona was glad for the company. “Sit beside me,” she suggested. She was conscious again of the marvelous magic of the horse, which allowed perfect communication between those whose languages would otherwise be a severe barrier.

Angus-image did. “Do not misunderstand my purpose,” he said. “I have not come to seek any favor from you, but to broach more serious subjects that occurred to me in afterthought.”

“Maybe those are what are keeping me awake,” Nona said.

“Your young man—Stave—what do you suppose is his situation now?”

There was the heart of it. Angus must have picked up her suppressed concern from the context of the thoughts the horse relayed automatically. “I fear for him.”

“With reason, if your despots are like ours. They will believe him to be guilty, because of his association with you. They may treat him unkindly.”

“No!” she said, meaning yes.

“But perhaps they will anticipate your return, having fathomed your nature,” Angus continued. “In that case they will keep him captive, hostage to your behavior. This is perhaps your gravest danger.”

“How can I do anything if he suffers?” she asked, dreading the answer.

“You can not, for you are of a gentle nature. But if you will consider the advice of one who is conversant with the despotic mentality, I can help you in this too.”

“Tell me what to do!”

“It is not for me to tell you, but for you to tell me. Here is my suggestion. Send Darius and Seqiro early to the region you suspect Stave will be held. Let the horse locate him with mind-talk. Then let the man remove him by living conjuration.”

“Yes!” Then she reconsidered. “But if I do that, instead of going to the anchor to help them through it, the delay may imperil my mission with the anima.”

“This is why I have approached you privately about this matter,” Angus-image said. “It is a decision for you to make alone. I will support you in whatever you choose.”

Nona considered. “No, I do not have the right. Stave is dear to me alone, not to the others, and they will be endangered. They are helping me to bring the anima, as you are. I can not work against them without their agreement.”

“Perhaps I can distract the despots, so that Stave can be rescued without delaying the others.”

“It is not right to ask you to endanger yourself for such a thing either,” she said. “I—I think I love Stave, but I fear I can not save him.”

Another figure appeared. It was Colene. “Don’t turn your back on Stave,” she said. “Do you think I want you near my man, if you’ve lost your man?”

“Oh, but I wouldn’t—”

“When Provos and I go through the anchor, that will leave you and Darius and Seqiro. Darius notices women. I’d feel a lot better if Stave were there too.”

Suddenly Nona appreciated the sense of it. Still, she wasn’t sure. “If saving Stave takes time, you may not get to go through your anchor. Then all will be lost, because we need that information.”

“It’s a calculated risk,” the girl replied. “I take them all the time. Save him.”

That seemed to be it. “Then I will do it.” Nona reached out to touch Colene, forgetting that she couldn’t make contact with an image, however real it seemed.

But her hand encountered a solid shoulder. Colene was physical!

“Seqiro woke me,” Colene said. “He figured it was my business, and it was.” She walked away, returning to her chamber.

Nona shook her head. She did not properly understand Colene, but she liked her. It was a great relief to try to save Stave.

“There is another matter,” Angus said. “In any event, the despots will be pursuing you closely, and their familiars will be watching every likely place. The site of the anchor will certainly be among them, even if they do not understand its significance. It may even be that the rescue of Stave will help distract them from it, as they will think that your interest is only in him. But you are unlikely to be able to gather at that site without very soon being pressed by despots. You may get the two people through the anchor, but then not have time to escape yourselves. Even if you conjure as a group to another place, they will be in hot pursuit. I could carry you away, but I will be plainly visible, and unless I take you off that world—”

“If we get them through the anchor, and the despots see, they’ll never stop watching that place,” Nona said. “Colene and Provos will be captured the moment they return.”

“I fear that is the case. So some other distraction seems warranted.”

“You have an idea?”

“Yes. If you can make it seem that the site is of no significance, and that you are merely passing it on the way to some other site, perhaps they will watch you instead of that place.”

“But it’s right by the sea. There’s nothing else there except—” Nona paused. “Except the instruments of the Megaplayers.”

“Which you now know have no special significance, though they may be archaeologically relevant,” Angus said. “However, your despots may believe otherwise. They may assume that those are what you seek. If you go to them, and perhaps even enter them—”

“Enter a giant petrified musical instrument?”

“The image in your mind suggests that Kara’s mandolin is there, whose hole is at the level of the sea. If you entered that, and then were conjured away, they might assume that that was the anchor. They might destroy it, but leave the real anchor site alone.”

“Colene is right!” Nona exclaimed. “You are a genius!”

“However, there remains the problem of hiding until Colene returns with the information. You must keep yourselves safe, or it will still go for nothing. I have one more suggestion, which may not appeal to you.”

“I’m sure it is a good one,” Nona said. She remained amazed at the intelligence of this giant. Provos had been entirely correct in selecting Angus to convert.

“It is that you go inside the world.”

Nona’s heart seemed to constrict. “The inner world!” she said. “Where the demons dwell!”

“They are not demons, but the descendants of people and animals and plants that entered that realm long ago,” he said. “I have made a study of them too, for they are part of the history of what we are. They exist I think in every world, large and small. They are no longer conventional in appearance, but many do have human intelligence, and perhaps human emotions. They surely do not like the despots, who kill anything strange on sight. They might give you sanctuary.”

“It would be a terrible gamble,” Nona said, appalled.

“Perhaps it is not a good suggestion. I could bring you back here.”

“No, we have to be close to the anchor, because the despots will be near it even if they don’t realize exactly where it is, and Colene and Provos will be exposed.”

“I will not be able to go with you, inside your world. It is too small for me. But I could carry images of all of you away, perhaps decoying the despots.”

“That should be good,” Nona agreed. “But Angus, if we are successful, and the anima comes to Oria, what will you do? Jupiter will still be animus.”

“I will return to my normal pursuits. My life is not a bad one. The events occurring on Oria will have no effect on Jupiter, and there will be no onus attaching to me here. This will be merely an interesting sidelight in my life, of no interest to others.” He seemed a little sad.

“You don’t suppose there could be a woman of the anima on Jupiter, who—”

He smiled. “I doubt it. These are rare occurrences. In any event I would be too old for her. But I thank you for the thought.”

“And I thank you for your help. You surely are the Megaplayer I sought.”

His image faded. She was alone again. Now she was able to sleep. She dreamed of Kara, looking like herself, and of Earle, looking like a cross between Angus and Darius.

IN the morning Angus carried them to the region of the spike on the rad, and invoked the filament magic. He was larger, and his range was farther, so they went directly to a worldlet in the spike of Oria. This was so small that there was no place on it for Angus to stand; he merely touched it lightly with his hand, the one holding Seqiro. Nona gazed down in the world, and from this vantage it did indeed look like a bug, as Colene described it, with a crude heart-shaped body and a round head and stubby legs of different sizes. Filaments extended out from the head like elaborate feelers, and from the legs like webs. Still, this was a world, surely with its tiny people, its despots and its theows, its families and its children, with their dreams and frustrations. What a marvel of scale this universe was, with worlds and people of every size, and similar cultures everywhere though they hardly communicated with each other or even knew of each other’s existence.

Yet by similar token she now knew that this universe was only one of many, and that the others were similar in having their people and dissimilar in having their different rules of magic. So in some, men could conjure living folk, and in some horses could do mind-magic. What an exciting larger framework that must be! If only she could visit it! But of course her place was here in her own reality, on her own world, ordinary as it now seemed.

Angus oriented on the filament, going the other way, and conjured them along it. Suddenly they were on the head of Oria, and everything except Angus was normal. Except that this was the part of Oria Nona had never before seen: the western spike, with its base in the diminishing series of heads. Like Jupiter, only much smaller.

Now they moved into their plan. They split into two groups, with Seqiro and Darius together, while Nona, Colene, and Provos remained with Angus. Nona concentrated to locate and alert her prior familiar, the bat, and cause it to fly out to a spot near the despots’ castle. She had never before tried to do this at such a range, but was successful. Seqiro’s range was limited, but contact with a familiar was a different kind of magic. When the bat found a glade in the forest that was unoccupied, Darius conjured himself and the horse there. The two disappeared, and would rejoin the others when they had rescued Stave.

Angus floated up high and began the daylong flight across the world. Now it hardly seemed different from their other travels; the forest and fields spread out between the rads exactly as on Jupiter or on the little worlds at which they had stopped. But on this one she had direct personal experience of the human events.

She had time to think during the flight, and that was unfortunate. She was worried about Stave, and Seqiro and Darius. Had they been able to rescue Stave, or had they just gotten themselves in trouble? Colene had told her to go for the rescue, but if it failed, what was Colene’s loss? Her man and her wonderful horse!

She looked at Colene. They could not talk now, because their languages were gibberish to each other and Seqiro was not here to join them. They were similarly isolated from Angus. They knew what they had to do, but they had been rendered into temporary strangers. The loss of Seqiro was painful.

Colene met her gaze and nodded yes.

Nona was startled. Could the girl have the mind-magic?

Colene seemed surprised too. She held up her hand with her thumb and forefinger almost touching, as if to say “this much.” A little bit of mind-magic? The ability to receive a few thoughts, but not to send them out?

Colene nodded. But she seemed unsure. As if it were a talent she was just learning, perhaps from her association with the horse.

Nona had an idea. She made a slate, and a piece of chalk. She showed it to the girl. She drew a circle on the slate, then erased it. Then she held the slate up so that it faced away from Colene, and drew a triangle. She looked past it at the girl.

Colene lifted one hand. Slowly she traced the outline of a figure in the air. It was a triangle.

Nona turned the slate around, showing the triangle. Colene broke into a smile.

Now they had something to do to divert their minds. Nona drew other figures, and Colene traced them with her finger. She was always right. She was picking it up from Nona’s mind.

Then Nona drew another triangle, but formed a mental image of a square.

Colene looked perplexed. Finally she drew a figure with seven points, but evidently wasn’t sure of it.

Nona turned the slate around, showing the triangle. Then she tapped her head, and drew the square superimposed on the triangle. The two together formed a figure with seven points. Image and thought had merged, and Colene had received both.

The girl looked awed. She really was doing mind-magic! Nona remembered what it had felt like to discover that she had the power of healing, or the power of compaction. It was wonderful, but also somewhat frightening. What did such magic mean? How would it change her life? Was she truly glad to have it?

The answer was yes: the more magic the better. It just took some getting used to.

Colene caught her eye again and nodded. The girl was reassured by Nona’s experience. Her power might be slight compared to that of the horse, but it was nevertheless significant, and it might grow.

Provos was sleeping. It seemed best for the two of them to do the same. They might be busy far into the night.

AT dusk they reached the East Sea. Angus was plainly tired. He would not be able to do anything more than set them down and move away. But he had gotten them here, and the despots had not intercepted them.

Now it was time to do their routine, to fool the despots about their real purpose here.

Angus came down beyond the castle, well away from the place of the instruments. He stood there a moment, and put his hand down to the ground. A blackbird turned in the air, spying the giant: the despots were being alerted.

Angus straightened up and started walking. He was as tall as the trees of the forest, and he moved rapidly. He was not physically tired, but magically tired; this was a rest for him as well as a distraction for the despots.

Colene!

It was Seqiro’s thought, sent to all of them. They had come within the horse’s range! Nona’s relief was so great she was unable to formulate a thought right away.

“Did you get Stave?” Colene cried.

Yes. He is with us. We are hiding in the forest. We have been moving around all day, avoiding the despots.

“Then come to us!” Colene said joyfully. “Angus, hold out your other hand.”

The giant did so. The horse and two men appeared in it. They had been reunited!

“Where are the despots?” Colene asked as Nona waved to Stave.

“Everywhere,” Darius replied. “Their familiars are scouting all around, and the despots of the rest of the world are doing the same. They knew you were coming, but not where you would land. They will close in on us the moment Angus slows.”

Nona saw that the man held a new little doll figure he had crafted: one which resembled Stave. He must have had to conjure himself into Stave’s cell, to get the necessary air, liquid, and solid for the conjuration of the new person.

Angus paused, and bent down again, touching the ground with the backs of his hands. After a moment he stood again, resuming his walk. Now the despots had another site to investigate; their familiars had not been close enough to see whether the giant had actually put anyone down, and there could be people fleeing into the forest.

“We’ll have to act quickly, when we do,” Darius said. “We don’t know how long it will take to get you through the anchor.”

Nona glanced at Provos. The woman seemed unconcerned. That should be a good sign.

Angus made two more pauses, roughly circling the despots’ castle. Then he came to the field near the instruments.

There were no despots there. They had been fooled into thinking it wasn’t important. Angus stopped near the brink.

“Go!” Colene exclaimed, jumping off the hand. Provos and Nona followed her. Darius and Stave got off the other hand and came to join them.

Provos seemed to know what she was doing. She walked briskly to the brink and reached for Nona’s hand.

Nona concentrated, trying to will the anima into being. Would it work without the music?

Provos disappeared.

Colene took Nona’s hand. “Keep an eye out for our return,” she said. “And watch yourself with my horse, woman.”

Nona had to smile. She willed the anima again, and Colene disappeared.

They are coming.

Nona ran back to the giant’s hand, paced by Stave and Darius. They climbed on, while Seqiro remained on the other hand. Angus stood.

Indeed, horses were galloping toward them from the village. Nona didn’t want to find out what mischief the despots had in mind; death might be the least of it.

Angus reached down toward the sea. For him there was no cliff, merely a rocky bank with old musical instruments leaning against it. He put his hand to the huge hole in the mandolin. The three of them climbed into the hole. Then the other hand brought Seqiro down, and the horse joined them.

An image of Angus appeared with them. “If I do not see you again, I wish you success,” he said. “Now conjure yourselves away; I will close my hands about images and pretend I am still carrying you.”

“Thank you, good friend!” Nona cried as the image faded.

The hand withdrew, pausing only to make a wave with the fingers. Then they felt the shudder of the ground as Angus tramped away.

Darius faced the horse. “Seqiro, can you find any mind near here in the ground? I must see through that mind’s eyes before I conjure us there.”

Yes, there is one. The mind is open. Here are the eyes.

“Then take hold,” Darius said, doing so himself. He held dolls of all of them, and he was ready to whisper to them, to make them ready for his magic.

Nona and Stave put their hands on the body of the horse.

Darius marked circles, then moved the dolls. There was the wrenching of conjuration.