Darius found himself on his back, with the dragon’s snoot at his face. The monster could bite off his head in a moment!
Then a monkey appeared. The creature had another net, a smaller one. It put this net over Darius’ head, then yanked it up as the dragon backed off. Darius had to sit up, then stand, with the net covering him from head to knees. The monkeys were in charge of this Mode?
The monkey held a cord connected to the net and walked to the side. When Darius tried to step toward the next Mode, the dragon growled and breathed down the back of his neck. That monster could snap him up in an instant; dragons had hunting reflexes. He had to walk exactly where the monkey indicated.
The path veered to the side, but the monkey guided him in a straight though not level line up a bank and into a forest of giant ferns. The dragon followed slowly. The way was marked by dabs of color on the ferns or ground.
They knew! They knew he was crossing Modes, and they were keeping him in this one!
He figured it out as he was required to scramble across the irregular terrain, hewing to the line that was this Mode’s intersection with his route. They had set out nets to snare wild creatures, but also to catch Mode travelers. They could recognize the latter by their odd clothing or alien nature. Then they brought the captives in, confining them to the narrow channel. As long as they were alert, they could do it.
And what did they do with their special captives? He was surely about to find out! He doubted he was the first one; the marked special path showed that. It wasn’t regularly used. Probably there were many such, so that they could bring in captives from whatever nets they were found in. With ordinary captures, they used the ordinary paths. So this wasn’t a common occurrence, but neither was it unknown.
In due course they traveled down a sloping field and to a collection of artificial structures. They weren’t exactly houses, but they weren’t exactly anything else. They had sloping upper surfaces, and walls made of bars.
Most of them were empty, but some did contain creatures. It was hard to see well, because one structure tended to obscure his view of another, but there seemed to be a wide variety of animals and birds. One animal had eight legs and long antennae, but also a cowlike udder, which suggested that it was a mammal, not a huge insect. One bird had four wings, translucent and extended like those of a dragonfly, but it also had a beak and feathers.
This divergence of animal creatures intrigued him despite his present peril. As far as he knew, the animals of Colene’s Mode were similar to those of his own, so he had assumed that they differed no more than did the people. He had evidently been mistaken, because he was only part of the way between their two Modes, and had seen no people and a wide divergence of animals.
Certainly it smelled of animals! The odor thickened as they approached the structures, becoming stifling. But he had no way to escape it. He did his best to tune it out. After all, it had not smelled nice in Colene’s shed, because of the presence of the fecal pot, but that had not bothered him or apparently her when they were together.
Colene: how he hoped he would reach her! Whether he lived or died was less important to him than whether he was reunited with her. If only he had brought her with him! But he had been put off by the realization of her youth and her depressive nature, and had blundered terribly.
He was brought along his straight line until it intersected one of the structures. Now he saw that the thing was fairly large. Indeed, large enough for him to step inside. The monkey put him in, took his pack, sword, and all his clothing, and carried them out to the dragon. The bars slammed down, sealing him in. This was a cage!
Dragon and monkey departed. Darius looked around. He was now naked, but the air was warm and he wasn’t in physical discomfort. There was straw or the equivalent on the floor, and a pot whose function he recognized from recent experience. That was all.
He checked the bars of his cage. They were set close enough together so that he could not get past them, and were firmly anchored in the floor. They seemed to be of wood or something similarly hard, perhaps cut from the stems of the big ferns. The floor under the hay was of the same substance, seamless. So was the roof. Whatever it was, it was too strong for him to bend or break. His sword might have chopped through it, but they had been smart enough to deprive him of that, as well as his food.
He tried to peer beyond his cage, but all he could see was other cages, all empty. Evidently recent trapping in this particular slice of the Mode had not been good.
But he had been caught! What was he to do? If he didn’t get out of here soon, not being able to complete his mission might be the least of his problems. The monkeys could be building the fires for a roast.
He sat on the straw. If he got any chance, he would dive out of the cage and into the next Mode. Better to be naked and free than risk recapture by trying to recover his clothes. But he doubted that he would get the chance.
At least now he had a notion why so few ever returned from the Modes! It wasn’t that they got lost, but that they were caught and dispatched. It had not occurred to him that there could be predators among the Modes, but it was all too clear now.
There was a stir beyond the cages. He peered out, and saw a figure approaching, followed by a dragon. It was a human being!
Indeed, it turned out to be a woman. She seemed to be about forty and not unhandsome, but there were deep lines of sadness or weariness on her face. She wore what might once have been a good conventional shirt, its buttons crossing from left shoulder to right hip in the style for the unmarried, but its color had long since faded to gray and it had been patched many times. Her skirt was evidently homemade from native material, puffing out from her hips and extending to the calves; her original one must have worn out. Her feet were in sandals, and were filthy, the toenails growing down and around in a manner that might be practical in a wilderness for protection against abrasions, but was detestable aesthetically. Her hair was long and somewhat unkempt. As if maintaining appearances was pointless here. Surely that was true!
She carried his clothing, which was in a tangle. She came to stand outside his cell, staring at him. Darius would have been uneasy about this at the best of times; he was even less at ease now.
“Ung,” she said, and passed the wad of clothing through the bars. She set his pack on the ground beside her. “Ung, ung!” She made motions as of dressing.
Human but not of his culture, obviously. Darius said nothing because it seemed pointless. He untangled his clothing and quickly put it on.
“Ung,” she said. “Ung pretend ung you ung ung don’t ung understand.”
It was his turn to stare. Words came through clearly amidst the nonsense syllables. There was no doubt: she spoke his language, and wanted to conceal that fact from the captors. That probably meant she was on his side!
“Ung?” he asked, scratching his head.
The woman turned to the dragon and said something. The dragon exhaled steamy breath and settled down for a snooze.
“Play dumb,” the woman said. “Look blank. I am testing you for responses to see whether we can learn to communicate. The dragon doesn’t understand the words, but he is watching you. If you give me away, we both are dead.”
Darius shook his head in feigned bafflement. “Ung?”
“You are from my Mode, or close to it,” she said. “I can tell by your clothing and supplies. Look to my right if you mean yes, and to my left to indicate no. Make no other responses, except obvious ones.” She twitched her right and left hands as she spoke, clarifying the signals. “Do you understand?”
“Ung?” he said, looking to her right.