Well, her memory of the future was surely short now, because she could not remember across realities, and tomorrow they would resume those crossings. He could only hope that some agency other than his own prevented Ddwng from getting what he wanted.
Stallion departed. “He is going to fetch Colene; it is time,” Horse explained. Like Cat, the neuter was the intelligent one. Darius nodded.
Colene returned. She was an absolute vision of beauty, in a pale blue gown and diadem. Darius caught his breath, unable to speak. He had never seen her like this!
Her gaze fixed immediately on him. Of course she was not surprised; she had known he was coming. “What, no Pussy?” she inquired with mock wonder. He noted with odd surprise that her words came from her rather than from the translation ball. “Take Mare for the night.”
“I would be with her as I was with you,” he said with hurt dignity. “But without the love.”
She looked at him for a moment more. Then her face crumpled. “Oh, Darius, I’m sorry!” she cried, and flung herself at him. He barely had time to rise from his chair before she collided, bearing him back against the wall. “I love you, I love you, I love you!” she wailed through her tears, into his shoulder, destroying the careful makeup Mare must have applied.
He wrestled her around until her head came up. Then he kissed her. “I love you,” he said.
“I would do anything just to be with you!”
“Yes.” That was what they had done, betraying the realities.
“Please—be with me tonight.”
He tried to say no, and could not. His separate chamber would not be used.
But when they were together, he remembered how young she was. In his culture a woman was old enough when her body indicated she was ready, and by that token Colene was legitimate. But in hers there was a set age of consent, and she was below it. They were not in her Mode now, but her values were of it, and it would be wrong to presume on her innocence. What could she knew of the reality of sexual indulgence, however pleasurable it might be?
Also, he knew that everything they did was being watched and recorded; the walls were eyes. He had no shame in sexual expression, but with Colene, with love, the first time, there should be privacy. He could not explain this to her, because she did not know the true ways of the DoOon.
Meanwhile she stripped naked for him. He demurred. “Not yet,” he said. He also refused to take her as a gift from Ddwng. When this terrible business was done, and they were safely in his Mode, then it would be all right.
“And what of Pussy?” she demanded with mercurial temper.
“I will be with you as I was with her.” He embraced her, and did nothing more, though his desire was manifest.
“Damn you!” she whispered.
“I will not say it would not have been otherwise, had you not appeared when you did,” he confessed. “After that, I thought only of you.”
She lifted her head. “Really? You really didn’t do it? Because of me?”
“Yes.”
She paused a moment, as if listening to a distant voice. “Yes, it really was that way, wasn’t it! I am so sorry I doubted. Well, it’s me now.”
“Yes. That is enough.”
“It’s enough,” she agreed. “Well, almost; you were naked with her. So get naked with me.”
Darius sighed, not annoyed, and removed his own clothing. His body was aroused, and he did not try to conceal this from her. She wanted to know whether he desired her, and this was answer enough. But his desire was matched by his discipline.
Colene gazed at him with evident satisfaction. Then she planted herself against him, her breasts and thighs pressing close.
He knew what she was doing. The little vixen was tempting him, as she had before, but more directly. Well, she could excite him, but she could not make him forget his resolve. He closed his arms around her and stroked her sleek back, and did no more. He was perversely glad she was doing this, because it was her way.
So it was that they slept, embraced, remaining chaste in their fashion, as they had when in her Mode. The odd thing was that she seemed pleased rather than rejected. Why would she offer her body to a man and be happy when he seemed to lack the gumption to use it?
NEXT day they gathered in the chamber of the palace where the anchor was. Colene stood beside her huge stallion, whom she had named Seqiro, her hand on his nose to guide him. Darius was becoming increasingly curious about that animal, who seemed to be more than ordinary, but he would not inquire where Ddwng could listen, which meant anywhere in this Mode. Provos was as usual impassive.
Ddwng was something else. The man was solidly garbed in an all-terrain suit with many full pockets and assorted devices whose purposes were obscure. He used a personal shield, which didn’t show but made him impossible to touch with any velocity, and carried a special pain dial. “So that we may best understand each other,” he said, “I shall make a small demonstration.” He touched the dial, and the pain coursed through Darius, at about the second level. He saw Colene stiffen, and Provos, and even the horse twitched his skin as if flies were stinging it. It was tuned to them all.
Ddwng touched the dial again, and the pain abated. “I believe this will operate throughout the Virtual Mode, as will my shield. I trust Darius, but I do not trust the rest of you, or the horse who is responsive to Colene. Should anything happen to me, the dial will automatically lock on maximum. It will respond only to me.”
“You made your point,” Colene said. “You don’t trust us, but you have promised to let us go once you have the Chip.”
Ddwng nodded. “Once I have the Chip.”
Darius doubted that the pain dial would be effective across the boundaries, but that didn’t matter. It was his word which bound him, not any threat to his body.
“You understand,” Darius said, “that you and the anchor are linked. You will be able to consume only food you carry with you from the anchor Mode; other food will do you no good. You will not be able to transport any object or substance that is part of a foreign Mode across the boundaries of the Modes, and anything from your Mode that you leave behind will remain in the Mode where you set it. So you must have all the supplies you will require for a journey of several days.”
“I discovered these things when I laid out the paths,” Ddwng said. “I used machines to facilitate my work, but I had to be in contact with those machines at all times or they would not cross the boundaries. I could not assign the work to any other person, or to a robot.”
“Robot?”
“Computerized machine,” Colene put in. “Golem, to you.”
“Yes, I thought you understood,” Darius said to Ddwng. “But I have undertaken to guide you safely to my Mode, and I need to be sure you understand the nature of the inherent threats to you. You must also be cautious about stepping across the boundaries in some sections; there may be rough terrain, or predators, or traps set. We shall have to proceed extremely cautiously when approaching the pit, the region of several realities that has been mined. We can not cross it safely, but we should be able to go around it. So if I tell you to do something, do not take offense; it may be an emergency.”
“I am a realist,” Ddwng said. “You are the leader for this excursion.”
“One other thing you need to know, in case we become separated: how to tune in on the most direct path. Since anyone who gets isolated from the group will have no way but this to rejoin the group, by converging on a common destiny, we all must be able to do it.” Darius glanced at Colene, realizing something. “The horse—he is from another anchor? He can cross boundaries without having to be in contact with you? You will nevertheless have to guide him, and not let him get lost.”