"My attention, for my sins, has been much taken up with our current problem," said Doctor Volospion.
"Ah, if only there were a solution," rumbled Argonheart Po. "We should have realized, when my dinosaurs were incinerated…"
"It was the moment to act, of course," agreed Doctor Volospion. His neck grew stiff with craning and he lowered his head.
"It needs only Miss Ming," said Abu Thaleb, lowering himself over the side of the howdah and beginning to descend by means of a golden rope-ladder the side of his great beast, "to complete the original quartet."
"She cannot be with us. She remains in safety in my castle."
"Probably wise." Abu Thaleb reached the ground. He signed for Argonheart Po that his way was now clear. The monstrous chef heaved his bulk gingerly to the edge and put a tentative foot upon a golden rung. Doctor Volospion watched with some fascination as the corpulent figure, swathed in white, came down the pink expanse.
"It is my duty to protect the lady from any danger," Doctor Volospion said with a certain semblance of piety.
"She must be very much pleased by your thoughtfulness. She is so lacking in inner tranquillity that the trappings of security, physical and tactile, must mean much to her."
"I think so."
"Of course," said Abu Thaleb doubtfully, "this will confirm Mr Bloom's suspicions of you. Are you sure —?"
"I shall have to bear those suspicions, as a gentleman. I do my duty. If my actions are misinterpreted, particularly by Mr Bloom, that is no fault of mine."
"Naturally." Abu Thaleb dismissed his elephant. "But if Mr Bloom were to take it into his head to — um — rescue Miss Ming?"
"I am prepared."
Argonheart Po grunted. "You are looking paler than ever, Doctor Volospion. You should eat more."
"More? I do not eat at all."
"There is more to eating than merely sustaining the flesh," said Argonheart Po pointedly. "If it comes to that, none of us needs to eat, there are so many quicker ways of absorbing energy, but there is a certain instinctive relish to such old-fashioned activities which it is as well to enjoy. After all, we are all human. Well, most of us."
Abu Thaleb was upset by what seemed to him to be one friend's criticism of another. "Argonheart, my dear, we all have preferences. Doctor Volospion enjoys rather more intellectual pastimes than do we. We must respect his tastes."
Argonheart Po was quick to apologize. "I did not mean to infer…"
"I detected no inference," said Doctor Volospion with an extravagant wave of his hand. "My interests, as you must know, are specialized. I study ancient faiths and have little time for anything else. It is perhaps because I would wish to believe in something supernatural. However, in all my studies I have yet to find something which cannot be explained or dismissed either as natural or as delusion. I do, admittedly, possess one or two miraculous artefacts which would seem to possess qualities not easily defined by science, but I fear it is only a lack of knowledge on my part, and that these, too, will be shown to be the products of man's ingenuity."
Argonheart Po smiled. "If, one day, you will let me, I shall produce a culinary miracle for you and defy you to detect all the flavours and textures I shall put into it."
"One day, perhaps, I should be honoured, mighty King of the Kitchen."
And to Abu Thaleb's relief, the two parted amicably.
Doctor Volospion, alone for the moment, glanced about him. He seemed unusually content. A little sigh of pleasure passed between his normally tight-pressed lips. He could, on occasion, produce in himself a semblance of gaiety and now there was a lightness to his step as he moved to greet Mistress Christia, the Everlasting Concubine, changing his costume as he went, to brilliant damson doublet and hose, curling shoes, a hat with a high crown and an elongated peak which could be doffed to brush the turf with a flourish as he bowed low. "Beautiful Christia, Queen of my Heart, how I have longed for this opportunity to see you alone!"
Mistress Christia wore ringlets today of light red-gold, a translucent gown of sea-green antique rayon, bracelets of live lizards, their tails held between their tiny forepaws.
"Oh, Doctor Volospion, how you flatter me! I have heard that you keep the most sought-after beauty in the world imprisoned in one of your gloomy towers!"
"You have heard? Already? It is true." He pretended shame. "I cannot help it. I am sworn to do so."
"Is it fitting, then, that you dally with me — for my reputation —"
"Is enviable," he said.
She kissed his chilly cheek. "But I know you to be heartless."
"It is you, Mistress Christia, who gives me a heart."
"But you will lay it at another's feet, I know. It is my fate, always."
His attention was distracted, all at once. Sweet Orb Mace's juvenile slaughter house was blazing. And a look of joy crossed Doctor Volospion's face.
Mistress Christia was bemused. "You seem pleased at this? Poor Sweet Orb Mace and his lovely little house."
"Oh, no, no, that is not it, at all." He moved like a moth for the flames, his face lit by them. And then fire licked his body again and he was naked. There came a chorus from all around. Everyone was likewise unclad.
From out of the inferno stepped Emmanuel Bloom. He wore a black and white Pierrot costume.
"I have come," he trilled amiably, "to be worshipped. I strip you naked. Thus I will strip your souls." He looked at their bare bodies and seemed rather confounded by some of the sights.
Fussing, a number of the guests were already replenishing themselves. Costumes blossomed on flesh again.
"No matter," said the Fireclown, "I have made my moral point."
With a caress Doctor Volospion brought rippling velvet to his body, dark reds and greens glowed upon him. "Shall you never tire of these demonstrations?" he asked.
Emmanuel Bloom shrugged. "Why should I? It is my way of preaching to you. There are many excellent precedents for the method. A miracle and a parable or two work, as it were, wonders."
"You have converted no-one, sir," said My Lady Charlotina, in a huge china bell decorated with little flowers. Her voice tended to echo.
The Fireclown agreed with her. "It is taking longer than I expected, madam. But I am persistent, by nature. And patient, in my way."
"Well, sir, we lose patience," said Abu Thaleb. "I regret to say it, but it is true." He turned for confirmation to his friends. All nodded. "You see?"
"Is consensus truth?" the Fireclown wished to know. "Agree what you like between yourselves, for it will not alter what is so."
"It could be said that that which all are agreed upon is truth," mildly proposed Argonheart Po, who saw the chance of a metaphysical spat. "Do we not make the truth from the stuff of Chaos?"
"If the will is strong enough, perhaps," said Emmanuel Bloom. "But your wills are nothing. Mine is immeasurably powerful. You use gadgetry for your miracles. Do you see me using anything else but the power of my mind?"
"Your ship's force-field…" suggested Doctor Volospion.
"That, too, is controlled by my mind."
Doctor Volospion seemed unhappy with this information.
"And where is my soul mate?" inquired Mr Bloom. "Where is my consort? Where are you hiding her, Volospion? Eh, manikin? Speak!" He glared up at his smiling adversary.
"She is protected," said Volospion, "from you."
"Protected? She needs no protection from Emmanuel Bloom. So, you imprison her."