But what of Colene’s own future? She had no guarantees about that, because she wasn’t going to settle in Provos’ reality.
She was headed, she hoped, for Darius’ reality, and that looked very nice. So long as Darius hadn’t changed his mind in the interim about just which girl he wanted to settle down with. If he had, what then would be Colene’s fate?
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 welclass="underline" 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.