Hands came down to touch her. It was a man. She knew she was part of the spoils of the victor; now she would be raped and killed. It hardly seemed to matter. But she forced her eyes open. She wanted at least to see who did it.
It was Darius! He was kneeling beside her, feeling her body for breaks. Could they have won?
Darius helped her sit up. Dazedly she gazed at the scene.
The body beside her was that of Koturo. His belly was gouting gore, but he was oblivious; he was unconscious. Seqiro stood nearby, breathing hard. The victor.
“You distracted Koturo,” Darius said. “He stunned you—and in that instant of his distraction, Seqiro blasted his mind. Seqiro was waiting for that key mistake, knowing what you would do on your own.”
“Gee,” she said, able to think of nothing more cogent.
Then Darius kissed her. She kissed him back, so glad for his presence and his love. Then she passed out.
WHEN she woke, it was a new day. She realized that Seqiro had put her to sleep, and kept her asleep, so that she could recover from the mental bolt she had received, unprotected. It seemed that only that little bit of mental resistance she had practiced, a shadow of what Darius had managed, had saved her from destruction. Koturo had swatted her as he might a fly—but what would have blasted a normal minion had not quite finished her. The horse had used enough of his power to leave him open for Seqiro’s timed, savage counterstrike, and that had done it. She had indeed made it possible, in her suicidal fashion.
Nona had taken Burgess to the Virtual Mode and healed them both there. Burgess now had all three eye stalks back in good working order, and Nona’s lung and shoulder were whole. Seqiro had a bad gash on his shoulder, but that too would heal soon enough. He had won his case, and there was now no charge against him; indeed, he was in a position to assume the leadership of the local equine community. Koturo’s minions had become his.
But Seqiro did not want to be a leader. He wanted to return to the Virtual Mode with the hive. So he was assigning the minions to Maresy, who would now have a good life as a restored horse.
But Colene, suicidal even in her caring, had to raise a point. “Seqiro, you know you aren’t in trouble here, any more. You can stay and not be hassled, and have a good life. Are you sure you want to risk the Virtual Mode again, where you could get killed or stuck in some foreign Mode with poor grazing and no horses with your type of mind?”
On the Virtual Mode I have you.
That was hard to disparage, for a number of reasons. But she tried. “You know I’m headed to Darius’ Mode, to be his love mistress, the moment I can get over my ludicrous fear of sex. There’s just not a whole lot to interest you there, Seqiro.”
I could go with Nona.
“And she would be good for you, too,” Colene agreed. “Your mind and her magic could go far. I would be horribly jealous. But she won’t stay on the Virtual Mode forever either. Neither will Burgess, I think. While here you have Maresy. You have learned the emotions and concerns of free human beings, and Maresy is now patterned after my favorite horse, before I met you. There’s a lot of me in her, now. And you could breed with her, if you wanted. So you could sort of have me and the good life here, without risk. And if we kept the Virtual Mode open, I could come and visit you regularly.”
Seqiro considered. Maresy, nearby, raised her head to gaze at them. Colene knew the mare wanted Seqiro to stay, for she too now understood the human way as well as she understood the equine way. She too loved Seqiro, as Colene did, but with the additional quality of sexual awareness for a stallion of her kind. Maresy, now well, was a fine figure of a female horse, worth a stallion’s attention.
I would like that, Seqiro admitted. But I want to be with you more.
That was it. The hard decision had been made, and Colene had done her duty by giving him the chance to seek his own life. She hugged him.
Then she went to hug Maresy. “What I said to him goes for you too. I will come to visit you. Maybe we all will. We will know the route.”
Thank you, Colene. I love you.
Surely true, because she was what she was. But Maresy could not travel the Virtual Mode. Not without extreme hassle and danger that would not be worth it.
Now at last Colene unwound enough to assess her own feelings. What had she done? She had butchered two women and stabbed the guts of a horse! What kind of a freak was she?
But Darius cut her off with another thought: “How is it that you can fight like that, and not tolerate loving sexual expression?”
Colene’s jaw dropped. She knew it sounded like an ugly taunt, but knew also that it was valid. Surely she could get over her hang-up about the rape, if she truly tried to. She would have to think about it, and come to terms with herself. Meanwhile, her horror of her own actions had been countered; she couldn’t feel properly sick about it until she knew how she felt about the rest. Darius had thrown a block into her horror.
And maybe Seqiro was shoring up her mental balance, too, so that she would not go plunging off the deep end quite yet. Being in the ambience of his mind was like coming into the wonderful warmth of a house, after braving the wintry storm outside. The storm was still there, but it no longer had the power to hurt. Telepathy made all the difference.
That brought her another realization. “Nona! Your magic—could it have worked on Earth because Seqiro connected us to the Virtual Mode, where your magic remained? And Darius could start to do some of his magic, for the same reason?”
“But our magic does not work, here,” Nona reminded her.
“Because this is home to Seqiro. He’s not extending any part of his awareness through the anchor. But if he did—”
Startled, Seqiro extended his mind.
“Now try your magic,” Colene said.
Nona rose up in the air. She flew to the side. A pink cloud appeared over her head, shaping itself into a parasol. A fireball burst in the air to the side. “It’s back!”
Darius brought out the icon of himself. He moved it—and suddenly he was across the field.
“We could have had the magic—if we had realized,” Colene said. “But I guess it worked out okay anyway. We were lucky.”
They agreed that they had been lucky. Perhaps not all of their magic would work in each Mode, but there should be enough to add considerably to their safety and comfort. They would be sure to have all their assets with them, when they came to Darius’ anchor. Nona could join them there with her magic intact.
Buoyed by the discovery, they went to the anchor. Maresy saw them off, sadly. The others stepped through, disappearing. Colene, the last, gave a weak wave to Maresy. Then, with tears in her eyes she stepped through herself.
And the mind predator clamped down on her mind. She screamed as she was drawn helplessly into that dread maw.
In a moment she was out; Darius had simply picked her up and carried her back through the anchor. Now they had a formidable new problem. Instead of departing, the predator had remained to catch her immediately. There was no certainty that a longer wait would be effective. Colene could no longer travel the Virtual Mode.
I will free my anchor, Seqiro thought. That will disrupt the old Virtual Mode and form a new one. It will take the predator some time to reorient. By then you can be at Darius’ Mode, and safe.
Colene knew it was true. It was the practical thing to do. Yet she protested. “But I’ll lose you!” she wailed.