Robin felt concerned for the first time. Why had they come through Phoebe now?
"Don't worry," Cirocco soothed. "His nose is so good there's not really any time when you're safe. Anyhow, your smell is what would protect you, in a way. When he catches a man, he eats him. Titanides confuse him. He doesn't rely on his eyes too much, but when he gets a Titanide, he bites off part and saves the torso because at least it looks right. Then he plays with it until it falls apart." She frowned at the memory, looking away from them.
"But he is killable," she went on. "I could think of a couple of ways that should turn the trick. There was one go-getter about thirty years back who even managed to capture him. I think he planned to bring him back alive, though I don't know how because Kong got loose and ate him. The point is the guy had him tied down and could have killed him.
"But nobody goes to his mountain to kill him because there's something that's marginally easier and will get the same result if you're a pilgrim. You can rescue one of his captives. If you're a woman, there isn't even the risk of getting killed yourself because he never kills women. Not that I'd recommend being captured by him; there're more pleasant ways to spend your time. Still, he's usually got somebody up there. I know for sure there's one woman he's had for six months now, and there might even be more."
She turned away from them, reconsidered, and came back.
"One thing Gaby didn't tell you is how I got out. If you think it was a case of turning my knowledge of Gaea to good use or of outthinking the old bastard, you're wrong. I might still be there if I had been left to my own devices. The fact is that Gaby got me out at great risk to her own freedom, and I don't talk about it because it frankly doesn't fit well with my image of myself. Kong is a pretty scruffy monster, but he's nothing to laugh about, and Gaby fills the role of knight in shining armor as well as anyone could, but I'm afraid I was a miserable damsel in distress. I didn't have much self-respect left by the time she dragged me out of there." She shook her head slowly. "And I couldn't give her the traditional reward." She hurried away from them.
Robin looked once more toward the mountain, then back at Chris, saw a suspicious look in his eye, and remembered what she had been about to say before Cirocco interrupted.
"No," she said firmly, taking his arm and pulling him toward the waiting canoes. "That's what Gaea wants you to do. She wants you to put on a good show for her, and she doesn't care whether you live through it."
Chris sighed but did not resist her.
"You must have a pretty low opinion of my ability to take care of myself."
The remark surprised her, and she searched his face. "Is that what you think? Look, I understand the need to prove yourself. I probably have it stronger than you do, after all. But personal honor cannot be placed at the service of malevolence. It must mean something."
"It would mean something to that woman up there. I'll bet she doesn't see it as a game."
"She's not your affair. She's a stranger."
"I'm surprised to hear you say that about a sister."
Robin had been a little surprised to hear it herself and uneasily searched for a motivation. When she found it, she was not delighted but faced it anyway. Part of it was, truly, that she detested the thought of anyone doing anything to impress the slime-Goddess, Gaea. The other part... .
"I don't want to see you hurt. You're my friend."
27 Burst of Flame
"This could be the most dangerous part of the trip," Cirocco told them.
"I disagree," Gaby said. "Iapetus will be the worst."
"I thought Oceanus would be," Chris put in.
Gaby shook her head. "Oceanus is tough, but I've never had too much trouble getting across. He's still lying low, making his plans. I don't expect to live to see the results. These beings think in terms of millennia. Iapetus is the most actively hostile region. You can count on him to notice you when you pass through and to try to do something about it."
The group was gathered around the base of the central Phoebe cable, which, like the one in Hyperion, came to ground in a wide bend of the river. It was actually more accurate to say the cable had created the bend through a process Cirocco called millennial sag. Gaealithic evidence beneath the cable proved that in earlier times Ophion had flowed among the cable strands. As its rim stretched, the land beneath the juncture had been pulled up and the river had found a new path.
"You're right about Iapetus and Oceanus," Cirocco said. "Though I'm not sure Oceanus will stay quiet much longer. The thing is that this is the only place where two strong regionals opposed to Gaea's rule are border to border. Rhea's too insane to be called an enemy. Beyond Tethys is Thea, who is still loyal to Gaea, and past her is Metis, who's an enemy but cowardly. Dione is dead, and beyond her-"
"One of the regional brains is dead?" Robin asked. "What effect does that have on things?"
"Not as much as you'd suspect," Cirocco said. "Dione's bad luck was to be squeezed between Metis and Iapetus when the war came. She was too loyal to cooperate or even to stay in the background, so they attacked her and she was mortally wounded. She's been dead for three or four centuries, but the land itself is doing okay. lapetus has tried to take it over, but he hasn't had much luck. I believe Gaea is able to handle most things that need doing."
"I've had fair amount of work there," Gaby pointed out. "Things break down more rapidly in Dione. But it's pretty peaceful."
"The point is," Cirocco continued, "that only here with Phoebe and Tethys do we have a situation with two strong enemies of Gaea side by side. I blimp over it when I can, and I thought you two ought to know you have that option if you want to leave us now. We're going to cross Phoebe and Tethys just as quickly as we can, but it has to be on land because while I can get a blimp to come in here and pick us up, none of them would take us from central Phoebe to central Tethys, which is what I have to do." She looked at Chris, then at Robin.
"I'll stick it out," Robin said. "But I would like to get out of here. I worry that Kong has ... you know. I've got two more days to go."
"As long as the wind holds, we're okay," Gaby said. "If it shifts, we'll get moving very fast, I promise you. What about you, Chris?"
Chris was still thinking about Kong, too, but not in the way Robin seemed to assume. He was not anxious to become a hero, dead or alive, but was bothered to know that this was the first real opportunity he had seen.
"I'll stick around," he said.
The Titanides did not like Phoebe. They tended to jump at unexpected sounds. Valiha almost stepped on Robin's foot at one point. They stayed near the fire a short distance from the outlying cable strands and sang their songs, which sounded to Chris like whistling in the dark.
He didn't blame them. He felt it, too.
Cirocco had said she did not expect to be long. There had been no question of anyone, even Gaby, going with her when she called on Phoebe. The Wizard knew Phoebe would not go so far as to drain her acid pool, so she would have to stand on the stairs and communicate as best she could. There seemed little reason why the encounter should last more than a few minutes. Cirocco would ask Phoebe to return to Gaea's arms and reap the benefits of her love-which meant avoid the consequences of her wrath since there was little Gaea could do to improve anything but a lot she could do to hurt Phoebe. Phoebe would refuse and send Cirocco on her way, possibly with a demonstration of power meant to frighten but not to seriously injure her. Phoebe was no fool. She was aware of the spoke pointed at her like a cosmic siege gun, and she knew about the Big Squeeze.