“Yes. Before the rabble finds us here.”
Indeed, now there was a commotion in the near distance. The abrupt disappearance of the four captives had alarmed the rabble. That was actually one real horse and three illusion figures, but the rabble would not know that.
“My opposite, who assumed several shapes, realized that I was using mind-talk,” Darius said. “She said she would not tell, but probably she will. They will probably realize that we have a nonverbal way to communicate with each other.”
They do. But it makes no difference. They regard us as magical creatures, and the more magic we show the better it pleases them, because of the potential for their offspring.
“But they will be more careful now.”
“So we had better not get caught again,” Stave said.
They are spreading out and checking every chamber. They are leaving one person to continue watching each chamber, so that we can not conjure past them.
“So there will be no place here for us,” Darius said. “But how are we going to conjure through the wall to another chamber if Nona has no familiar there?”
I will have to find a mind, and we shall have to go blindly again.
Darius nodded. That was the necessity. But it was risky.
“He has found one,” Nona announced.
That was good, because the sound of the search-pursuit was rapidly getting closer. They clustered together, and Darius reinvoked the icons. Seqiro gave him Nona’s image, and he conjured them to the new chamber.
This was a tiny one, and it did feel high, which meant it was deeper in the planet. It might be one of the last the rabble would check. But the pursuit sounds remained. The rabble would not stop until every chamber was covered.
Little Jud stared at them placidly.
The sound of footsteps grew suddenly loud.
Stave stepped toward the door opening. “I will block the way,” he said.
“No,” Nona countered. “I can do it better.” She stooped to pick up a pebble. She flipped it toward the doorway—and as it flew, it grew, until it landed crunchingly as a boulder. She had used her expansion magic.
“But I can help,” Stave said. He concentrated, and a viciously fanged snake appeared on the boulder, facing outward. The rabble might have forgotten what animals were, but they would be wary of that one.
Still, Darius knew that neither stone nor illusion would hold the rabble back long. Even if they did, the group would remain trapped here, and have to make terms when they got hungry.
I have found a mind.
“Then I will move us across,” Darius said. “Brace yourselves; we don’t know what we’ll find.”
They braced themselves, and he invoked and moved the icons. There was the wrenching.
They landed, jumbled, in a cavern so awesomely large that it seemed like the surface. Darius did not know how to judge an internal distance like this, but guessed that it was perhaps a third of the planet’s diameter across. The ceiling might well be the center of the planet.
They were on a slope that rose into a pointed mountain peak on one side, and into the great curved side of the chamber on the other sides. It seemed somehow familiar, as if he should recognize this vast domain, but somehow he didn’t.
“The other side of the East Sea,” Nona said.
That was it! This was the inside of the planet. The pointed mountain was the pointed depth of the sea at the base of the planet, viewed from within the planet. What an amazing perspective!
A sudden growl startled them into looking around. The mind we oriented on, Seqiro clarified.
It was a small dragon. Nona quickly scooped up a pebble and transformed it into stone ramparts that effectively barred the creature from charging them. But its growl had alerted larger dragons farther away. One of them launched into the air and flew toward the intruding group. It was so big that it might have been a creature of Jupiter, and it looked hungry.
“I fear this is not a suitable place for us,” Darius said. The others nodded agreement.
“But if we go back—” Nona started.
“I think we shall have to come to terms with the rabble,” Darius said. “What they want with us is not nearly as deadly as what these dragons want. They are not bad folk; they merely have a need they must pursue, and they are doing so in a manner that is ethical by the standards of their culture. If we negotiate again with them, they should do so in good faith.”
Trite. They tried to deceive us, but only to facilitate their desire, not to harm us. They will honor whatever deal they make with us.
To that Nona could not object, though she did seem a trifle doubtful. Her objection to required breeding was more substantial than that of the males. But the approach of the dragon was persuasive.
They gathered into their tight group, and Nona found the mind of her familiar. The boy remained in the small chamber, gazing at the boulder that partially blocked the entrance.
Darius invoked his icons and conjured them back. They landed behind Jud, who heard them and turned to gaze solemnly at them, unsurprised.
But in the interim, the rabble had arrived. Now the four of them were fairly caught.
BACK at the dais chamber, Darius faced Null-Pussy, who was now free but retained her last form. Apparently the rabble did not bother to change forms unless they had specific reason; they simply remained as they were. “I am talking to you because I best know how,” she said. “I have not told the others your secret, but have told them I can bargain more effectively with you than another person might.”
“True,” Darius said. “I shall be glad to talk with you. I am not the leader of this party, but the others will know what I say.”
“We have no leaders. We merely follow our custom. We require four thousand breedings from you. We prefer not to have to duel for each one, as it is apparent that we can not either persuade you or force you to breed. We don’t want you conjuring yourselves out again where we might lose you.”
“We returned because we did not want to die,” Darius said. “We would rather settle with you than do that. But we can’t remain for a thousand days. Is there any alternative?”
“If you can breed four thousand times in one day—”
He laughed. “We can not! But if we do not return to the surface when we need to, in several days, the point of our retreat to this region will be lost. Could we go, and return to you after Nona brings the anima?”
“If we let you go, you will never return,” Null-Pussy said.
“I fear that is true. But we may not find much point in life if we do not. You may hold us here, but you can not keep us alive if we do not wish it.”
“If you try to die, you will become weak. Then we can tie you and force you to eat, as we force you to breed. You will not like it as well, and neither will we, but it is a way.”
“Unless we die too quickly.”
“We do not believe you really wish to die.”
Darius knew that was true. “We prefer to find some other way. An alternative that satisfies us and you. Do you have a suggestion?”
“We would rather have you breed voluntarily. If one among you can not find a way to accept it, the others could breed more, to fill that person’s quota.”
Now, there was a notion. “You don’t care who breeds, as long as there is the allotted number of breedings?”
“The allotted number of breedings by surface folk, who have magic,” Null-Pussy clarified. “To produce offspring who may return there. We prefer that your males breed our females, because there will be many more offspring then.”
That meant that Nona could most readily be excused. That would please her. “Then what you really want is to return.”