The men had been moving purposefully. Now they paused. They were supposed to be capturing her and searching out the other members of her party, but she was now acting in an interesting fashion. They probably weren’t allowed to rape her, because some ranking figure of royalty had reserved that privilege to himself, and the seeing-eye blackbird was watching. Maybe they planned to kill Darius, so she would have no protector, and then wicked Knave Naylor would dare to return to complete what he had started. But it was okay to watch her. Maybe the despot who was attuned to the familiar was watching too. Men were easy to distract if a woman knew her business.
So she danced, and began lifting her green tunic so that more of her legs showed, and whirling so that the shortened skirt of it flung out, revealing yet more. She still wore the color of the unclassified visitor, which surely enhanced the interest of her person. Ordinary theows would seldom if ever get a glimpse of the private flesh of despots, and she just might be classified a despot; the doubt was there as long as she wore the green. Oh, yes, she was mesmerizing them, and she loved it. Even if it wasn’t truly her ability, it was her own little body.
But this would last only so long, and then she had to be out of here. What was keeping Darius? He couldn’t have forgotten her!
She hauled the tunic up another notch, giving them a view of her underwear. She had had to tie together bits of cloth after the knave burned her undergarments in heatless flames. Did girls wear panties under their cloaks here? Surely they did—and if not, well, she was an outsider, so she was entitled. What about bras? Well, she’d take those things off too, if she had to. Anything to stretch it out until she was conjured away.
The men were staring. They seemed even more fascinated than before. Were they undergarment freaks? Hobard had stared—maybe that was it! Folk here didn’t wear anything under their tunics, so she was startlingly different.
Yes. It seemed Seqiro had learned this, but hadn’t thought to tell her before. The horse wasn’t much for initiating things, and really didn’t care much about clothing.
Another figure appeared, this one riding a horse. The garb was black. That meant a despot male. That also meant that the game was over. He would use magic to hog-tie her, and then the conjuration might not work.
She hauled her tunic the rest of the way up and whirled it over her head. “Take a look at this, blackhead!” she cried. Maybe she could wow him too, with her naughty undies, long enough to give her whatever time she needed.
Suddenly she floated, and not by her own design. It was the magic. She was sailing toward the despot. So much for distracting him with her pants. “Damn it, Darius, get me out of here!” she cried.
There was a wrenching, and she landed waist-deep in water. Above her loomed what looked like a transparent bell. It was so large that there was room for Darius, Provos, Colene, and Seqiro, with Nona astride the horse. Several extensions reached down to the sea floor, evidently keeping the big bell stable.
“But what keeps the air fresh?” she asked.
“Nona is making more air from spent bubbles of the old air,” Darius explained, handing her a new green tunic. “But she’s not used to this, and there are several of us, so it’s a drain on her.”
She donned the tunic. The bottom of it trailed in the water, but that couldn’t be helped. “But if it’s magic—”
“Magic takes about the same energy as physical activity,” he said. “Unless it’s illusion. We don’t want her to get overtired. We’re pretty deep now.”
“But I don’t feel any pressure.”
“Pressure doesn’t build up here. It’s no worse a mile down than at the surface. But we’d have a long way to swim, holding our breaths.”
And Nona was making it possible to do this. Colene decided not to begrudge her the ride on Seqiro.
Fortunately they were close to the nethermost cleft of the East Valley. The lights of the tiny filament structures became so small that they were no more than a glowing band, and the other sides of the valley appeared. Suddenly they were there: standing over the central dimple. From it extended one straight band of light, which reached right through their bell and beyond without being intercepted. That was the major filament.
“But how do we travel along that?” Colene asked. “It’s just a beam of light.”
“Nona can tune in to the planetoids along it, and Seqiro can tune me to her, and then I can see to conjure us to them. Actually she may be able to travel along it alone; the theow legends say that those with real magic have this power.”
“But this is going to be tricky, one at a time.”
“This time we’ll travel together. She thinks the despots can do it, so it must be possible for us.”
“I hope so,” Colene said, liking this less.
Nona sat up straight, extending her arms. Seqiro moved, responsive to her will, until they stood squarely across the filament. In fact it now traveled up through her body and out the top of her head. “Touch me,” she murmured.
Darius, Provos, and Colene came close. Nona reached down to take hands with Provos on one side and Colene on the other. Darius reached past Colene to take hold of Nona’s knee. Colene wasn’t totally pleased with that, but suppressed her objection. She did feel the tingle of magic, as if a trace electric current were running through them.
The magic took hold. Colene’s awareness seemed to follow the beam up, up at the speed of light, until it focused on another Mandelbrot bug far away. Darius’ free hand moved, holding five doll figures up in that direction.
They shot up through the bell and the water and out along the beam in what turned out to be a zigzag course. Suddenly they were at the planetoid.
It took Colene a moment to get her bearings. They were no longer in the diving bell; that must remain under the sea. They were standing on a bug—but it was only a few miles across. They could step over many of its small projections. In fact, they had to; they were on the tiny head of it, which fastened to a larger head, and a larger one, until the body of it loomed. The head was in sunlight, but the far side of the body was in shadow.
Their own heads towered what should have been miles above the surface—yet they breathed without difficulty. And the gravity was the same as it had been on Oria. Nona had been right: it was the same, regardless of the size of the planet. Julia was a magic universe.
They walked around the body, heading east. The sunlight stopped at about the level of the largest side projections. They continued into the East Valley. Now all around them the filaments glowed, with most merging into ground light, but some rising to head height or beyond. It was similar to what they had seen at night on Oria, only now their heads were in daylight after their bodies were in deep shadow.
They came to the East Valley. This had a puddle of water in it, and Colene realized that it was the same as the sea on Oria. Their perspective had changed. They were like giants on this tiny planet.
“I think I must rest for a while,” Nona said.
“I too,” Darius agreed. “This is a new exercise for me, and I don’t want to go wrong.”
There is no danger for us here, Seqiro thought. It is safe for you to sleep.
Nona slid off his back, made a huge pillow from a thread of her dress, and lay blissfully down on it. Then, as an afterthought, she made another pillow for Darius.
Colene was tired too, but the evidence of Nona’s compatibility with Darius was something she did not want haunting her dreams. So she refused to rest, and turned her attention elsewhere.
This planet was just like Oria, and it helped her to understand Oria’s geography. Could there be people on this world, in scale with it? That would be funny!