But the next Mode had its own wall, angled differently but just as extensive. They avoided this also, by moving farther to the side. Then they came up against a third wall, and this one was angled so that it was exactly crosswise—which meant it extended along the width of their section of this Mode, and they could not readily get around it.
They halted again for a consultation. “Your folk responsible for this, Nona?” Darius asked.
“They could be,” Nona agreed. “In Julia, we reversed the flow of magic, so that it now touches women instead of men. But in other Modes it may not have changed, and the despots may be doing unkind things to the land, or trying to pen up the peons. It is the way their minds work. I think we should get past this quickly and leave it far behind. I do not want to become the captive of despots.”
“None of us do,” Colene agreed. “They’re mean jerks. Okay, I guess you can fly over it, and Darius and I can put wood panels on it and climb over. But what about Seqiro and Burgess?”
“We’ll have to build a hoist or a ramp,” Darius said. “I think a ramp is better, because Seqiro can walk up it himself.”
“But what about the other side?” Colene asked. “That wall is right up against the next Mode boundary, by the look of it; we’ll be dropping off into the unknown.”
“We’ll check the next Mode, of course. We won’t have to jump blind.”
“And what about Burgess?” she asked.
“Seqiro can haul him up the ramp on a sledge or wagon.”
They got to work. Darius carved a wooden structure, a long ramp with supports, wide enough for the horse. Nona flew up and over the wall, to check the next Mode. She reported that it was clear, with a wall that wouldn’t interfere with them; they could set the ramp on the far side of this one without a problem. Darius set the model ramp beside the wall, so that it aligned, running in the same direction. Then Nona made it expand. She had already expanded the base of the wagon they had used before, so that it was just large enough to support Burgess.
Meanwhile Colene was busy searching for rocks. “Come on, airfoot, help me,” she said, touching a contact point. “We want a good supply.”
What were they for? It was not possible to take the rocks across the boundary.
“Look, you know how your hivers didn’t just leave you alone? Well, whoever built or magicked this wall isn’t just going to sit by and let folks cross it. We’re going to see guards conning by on their rounds any time, and if we aren’t across yet, we’re going to have to fight. If they use magic, Nona will have to help us. But if they’re peons, as seems more likely, stones will stop them. That’s what you’re good at. So we’ll have a good supply for you, and we can throw them too. They’ll work just fine, as long as we remain in this one Mode, and once we’re out of it, it won’t matter.”
Now he understood. She was correct. He got to work finding rocks and sand, and storing them in a wooden box she had gotten. By the time they had a good collection, the ramp was almost full size. Nona’s magic seemed to be stronger on the Virtual Mode than it had been on Shale, so she could expand things faster.
Darius walked up the ramp to the top of the wall. He set a wood panel on the wall, making a safe platform. “Um, I didn’t realize this until just now: this wall’s only about two handspans wide at the top. Seqiro won’t have room to cross.”
“What do you mean?” Colene demanded. “He can just come up on this side, and step across to the ramp on the other side, no problem.”
“But we have only one ramp. We’re going to lift it over after Seqiro and Burgess reach the top. So they have to be off it first.”
“Oh.” Colene pondered a moment. “We’ll just have to make a second ramp.”
“I suppose so.” Darius stepped onto the panel on the top of the wall, making sure it was secure.
There was a chime. It seemed to come from the wall itself.
“Uh-oh,” Colene said. “That’s an alarm. I have a suspicion that we aren’t going to have time to carve and expand another ramp.”
“True,” Darius said. “We’ll have to act now. Nona, come up here and expand some more panels for the top of the wall. Those are smaller, so they will be faster to do. Colene, you hitch up Seqiro and Burgess and lead them up the ramp.”
They got to work immediately. Nona flew up to join Darius on the top, and began to expand more panels. Colene hitched Seqiro’s harness to the wagon and led the horse to the base of the ramp. Darius came down, and the two of them borrowed strength from the horse and heaved Burgess up onto the wagon. They put the box of stones on the end of it, where Burgess’ trunk could readily reach them.
There was the sound of barking. Burgess recognized it from Colene’s knowledge: it was the noise made by creatures vaguely resembling the horse, but smaller, with sharper teeth. “Just in time,” Darius muttered. He got on the ramp and hurried up to rejoin Nona.
“Okay, horseface, keep your feet straight in line,” Colene said. Burgess was able to understand her increasingly even when she wasn’t touching a contact point, and through her, the others. “Use my eyes; I’m watching the ramp. Ignore all else. Darius and Burgess will guard us.”
Burgess hoped so. His position seemed precarious as the wagon tilted, being hauled up the ramp. But he followed Colene’s directions too, focusing only on what lay behind.
That manifested soon enough. Several creatures matching Colene’s mental description of dogs came charging along the wall, baying. Their sharp teeth showed at the ends of their long snouts. He knew from Colene’s mind that they would attack savagely without hesitation, like land-bound shears.
He oriented his trunk. As the first dog came within range, he fired a stone at the white of its teeth. The stone struck, hard, and the dog made a squeal and fell to the ground.
But the next dog was already there. Burgess fired another rock, which struck the head between the two matched eyes. That dog spun off to the side, stunned.
But more were coming. They clustered so thickly that it was not possible to score on each one, and his third stone missed. His wagon was now halfway up the ramp, but the dogs were coming up the ramp too.
He worked his trunk to the bottom of the box, reaching the sand. He sucked it in and spewed it out into the faces of the three dogs on the ramp. Their eyes were not on stalks, and could not be retracted, so were vulnerable to this. They yelped and rolled off the ramp.
Colene was now reaching the top, bringing Seqiro’s head with her. “Step close, keep your balance,” she murmured. “Right up onto the wall, here, and along it. We’ll just keep going. There’s nothing else in the world we need to be concerned about, horsehead.”
The dogs were coming again. But now the length of the ramp between them and Burgess was greater. He oriented his trunk, and when a dog came up, he fired the rock at the animal’s head. The dog cried out and fell from the ramp. So did the next, when treated similarly.
But then another creature came into sight. This was a human figure, similar to Darius. That was surely not good.
“Nona, we need your fire,” Darius said from the wall. “Set fire to the grass, so there’s smoke.”
A fireball appeared at the base of the ramp. The remaining dogs yipped and scattered. The grass and dry leaves caught fire, and smoke billowed. There was an exclamation from the man beyond.
Now the wagon was at the top of the ramp. Darius was there. “Steady,” he said, touching a contact point. “There will be an imbalance as the wheels cross the angle between the ramp and the wall. Stay quite still; don’t react. I will guide the wheels.” He leaned over, putting his hands on the front of the wagon.