In moments they were both shivering. They came out and shook themselves. Their clothing was dry, but they wanted to keep it that way. “We must hug for warmth until we dry,” she said.
He was constrained to agree. They embraced face to face, their linked arms somewhat awkwardly to the side. He was too cold to be sexually stimulated; he was just glad for her warmth.
When they were dry enough, they put their dirty clothes back on. They scrounged for some sticks, but not for a fire; these were makeshift weapons. Then they sought a suitable tree with branches both big enough and high enough to enable them to settle comfortably above the ground. That should protect them from nocturnal ground animals, and the foliage might shield them from great birds.
It was awkward climbing with their arms linked, and awkward getting comfortably settled. Finally they sat facing each other, with their backs braced against the large forking branches of the tree, his feet wedged against the knots to the side of the opposite branch, her legs lifted and spread so that her knees embraced his waist while she sat partly on his thighs. His inadequate blanket covered their shoulders.
“I could wish that I were younger,” she murmured, “for this position would surely drive you mad.”
He remembered how Colene’s naïveté about the spread of her clothed legs had nearly done so. “You are not old enough to avoid that risk. Fortunately it is too dark to see.”
“I thank you for that courtesy. However, you have seen my body. Please answer with candor: do I retain sexual appeal?”
“Yes, but—”
“I mean, allowing for my age, of course.”
“That was not the nature of my qualification. I am a man of honor.”
“I thank you again, Darius. You are very much a man of my culture.”
He tried to tilt his head back, so as to rest it against the branch behind him, but that was awkward. “Please do not misunderstand. I think I must put my head forward, on your shoulder, to sleep.”
“Understood. We shall embrace as necessary to be comfortable.” She put her head on his left shoulder, and he put his on her left shoulder. They linked their free arms to complete the solidity of the position. Thus braced, it would be possible to sleep safely, and their closeness helped shield them from the cold. It was far from ideal, in several respects, but feasible.
“We shall sleep soon, but now we must talk,” Prima said, as if they had not been doing so all along. “You have been most patient and accommodating. Please, if you will, tell me of your mission here. You surely have most pressing reason to risk the Modes.”
“I made a spot trip to a far Mode, searching for a woman I could both love and marry,” he said. “I am the current Cyng of Hlahtar. I think you know the problem.”
“Indeed I do! I think you know mine too.”
“Yes. Kublai wanted most sincerely to learn of your fate. He agreed to take my place if I would search for you as I went.”
She was silent for a moment. Then she asked: “What is Kublai’s present feeling for me?”
“I think it is not love. He had had to marry many times, and discard all his wives, until he retired. Now he has married for love, at last. But he loved you once, and remains sorry it could not be worked out. I think he holds his emotion in abeyance, expecting either to learn nothing of you, or of your death. Now of course, while he takes my place, he has had to divorce his love-wife and make her his love-mistress. She is not pleased with that.”
“I know the feeling.”
“Yes, of course.” Not only had she not been able to marry for love, she had not been able to assume the post for which she was plainly qualified.
“If I return, would he marry me?”
“But the Cyngs of Hlahtar don’t marry for love!”
She merely lifted her head and looked at him in the darkness.
Embarrassed, he gave her the answer. “Yes, I believe he would. Your power would make no other wife necessary. But I understood that this was not a role you sought.”
“It was not. But I had time to think, in twenty years, and I realized that such a marriage was a better use for me than what I had with the dragons.”
“What did they make you do?”
“Very little. They were saving me for the chance arrival of another of my kind. Then I was either to discover his secret of Model travel, or to breed with him.”
“But there is no secret!” he protested. “The Chip must be set from the anchor point.”
“So I tried to tell them. They were not sure they could believe me. So I helped feed the captives, until their Modes expired and they could be freed.”
“Freed?”
“There is no sport in hunting a caged creature. But one that has fled the cages and gone out into the wilds can be a pleasant challenge. I was smart enough never to do that, so I survived.”
“I am glad you did. I think I would not have escaped without your help.”
“I did it for myself as much as for you. But now we must ascertain where we stand.”
“I thought we had done that.”
“No. What do you suppose the chances of your encountering me were?”
“Obviously good enough!”
She shook her head. Her hair moved against his own. “That is not the case. There are an infinite number of Modes. How did we meet in one?”
“I was crossing Modes, until I was trapped in the same way you were. Thus there was no chance involved.”
“Not so. Infinity is broader than that. There are not only an infinite number of types of Modes, there are an infinite number of each type. An infinite number of Cyngs setting out in search of love. An infinite number of dragons trapping travelers. How is it that you encountered me, when there are an infinite number of variations of you and an infinite number of variations of me?”
That had not occurred to him. “Perhaps it was a fortunate chance.”
“I think not.”
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying that we did not meet.”
He lifted his head, startled. “This is humor?”
“No. I shall explain. We are from different Modes.”
“But we speak the same language! We have the same conventions! And I know of you, and you know of Kublai! Our Modes match!”
“No. Our Modes are very similar, but they surely do not match. That is why I must remain bound to you until I reach your anchor. Were I identical, I would not need such contact; once you drew me onto your Virtual Mode, I would remain on it, being of the substance of your universe. Were I too far removed, I would not be able to cross with you at all. But I am in between: close enough to cross with your help.”
“But perhaps you are identical,” he said.
“No. When I came close to you, and touched you, I did not step onto your Virtual Mode, though I could feel its ambience. I was one of the infinite number of near misses. So you see, there is no great coincidence in our meeting. There are infinitely more mismatches than perfect matches.”
“But then why do you want to return with me?”
“Because your Mode is also infinitely better than the alternative. At least once I am through your anchor point I will be able to remain, for your Mode will surround me far more solidly than does the Virtual Mode. A man very like the one I loved will be there. I hope he will marry me.”
“But surely you would not deceive him!”
“Surely not! I will tell him the truth, and offer him my body and my power for his disposal, as long as he wishes either.”