She had a point. “Let’s just say that I am impressed,” he said.
You sure are!
“And I do thank you,” he continued doggedly.
Nona nodded, just as if nothing else were going on. “You are welcome.”
He glanced down at himself. The blood was caking on his tunic, and it remained torn where the rat had bitten him. In fact the blood had soaked through to his new undershorts. What a mess!
“Change it,” she suggested. In her hand appeared a new tunic, generated from a thread of the old. Then, after a pause, a new pair of shorts too. Colene had taught her well.
He did not hesitate. He pulled off his soiled items and used their clean portions to wipe off the blood that remained on him, with the help of some water Nona conjured. Then he pulled on the new clothing. After what she had done for his body, she could see any part of it she wanted to. It wasn’t the first time.
Yeah, but I was there, before.
“You are still here,” he murmured in response.
Then they resumed their search for the instrument. The gnat had been buzzing through the crevices all this while, and Nona had been receiving its reports. Suddenly she jumped. “That’s it!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands.
They used the shaft of the trident to pry the covering rubble up, carefully, and set it aside. In a moment the surface of a container showed. The thing was sealed in its own case! That was a break they hardly deserved.
Darius lifted out the box, and Nona immediately made a similar box of the same size and shape and set it in the hole. Then they replaced the covering rocks. The site had been restored, except for the one borrowed article.
Nona opened the case. There lay a trapezoidal object with a number of strings stretched from pegs on either side across two central bridges. Beneath the strings were two holes decorated by rose patterns.
Darius stared. He had seen something like this before. But where? He had no idea what it was.
“At the cliffs by the sea,” Nona said. “The instruments of the Megaplayers.”
That was it! Those huge stone devices—one was just like this, only this one was of a size to be handled by a person of Nona’s stature. It was ironic that the huge instrument was there on small Oria, while the small one was here on huge Jupiter. Each in the wrong world.
“It is a dulcimer,” Nona said, admiring it. “A hammered dulcimer, and here are the hammers. Its magic has protected it all these years, and I will be able to play it once I tune it. This is a beautiful instrument, better than mine.”
“A beautiful instrument,” he echoed. It was indeed that, physically; it glistened as if made yesterday.
She closed the case. Then Darius led the way out of the cavern, alert for any appearance of the rat, while Nona carried the precious dulcimer.
They emerged to bright daylight; their eyes had become accustomed to the lesser light of her illusion lamp, which she had managed to maintain throughout. Colene was there, as he blinked, adjusting. “What’s this about you in the arms of another woman?” she demanded. But she couldn’t hold the pose; she hugged him. “I’m glad you’re not torn up, you rascal.”
Darius decided not to say anything.
Angus flew them back to his home. This time Nona rode too, carrying the ancient instrument.
At the house Nona got to work on the dulcimer, adjusting the strings, making sure everything was sound. Darius learned that the others had become better acquainted during their wait outside the cave. Angus was interested in their world of origin, and especially interested in Colene’s statement that all the members of their little party came from different variants of that same world. He had not believed in other realities, but was becoming convinced as Seqiro showed him mental pictures of the Virtual Mode. “I had thought our universe was vast and varied,” he said. “I may have underestimated the case.”
“The Virtual Mode has been an amazement to all of us,” Darius said. “Every layer of it is another reality, each complete in itself, just as this one is. But they may have different fundamental laws as well as different customs. Colene and I are still working out our differences, which are mostly cultural.”
“Even when there is a common culture, in all the universe, it can be difficult,” Angus said. “I have studied the legends of our people, trying to align them with the evidence I find in the ground, and they do offer insights.”
Nona looked up. “It is ready,” she said. She had set the dulcimer up on a stand she had made, so that she could sit and play it conveniently. It tilted up and back, the broad side at the base, the narrow side away from her. “But I do not know whether I can do the type of magic you suggest. I have never—”
“You have never played on a magic instrument,” Angus said.
“Yes. Only common ones are allowed for theows.”
“Play it, then, little woman,” Angus said. “The magic will manifest—or it will not. Then we shall know.”
Nona took her two delicate hammers, which looked like oversized needles, being no more than delicate little pieces of wood and felt with needle-eye circles on the ends, and she addressed the dulcimer. She touched the strings, and the music began.
Darius had heard and enjoyed music many times, and was familiar with the sound of many instruments. But he was surprised by the finesse with which Nona played. Her little hammers touched the strings so rapidly that it seemed she was striking randomly, but the tune indicated otherwise. This was a divine melody. It was so delicate it seemed faint, yet it also seemed to fill the universe. It touched his heart and shook the mighty planet with the same refrain.
As he listened, Darius was satisfied that whatever it was that Nona had to do, he was bound to support it. Her mission was right and necessary. The rest of his life did not matter.
The piece was all too brief. When it ended, he could remember none of the melody or harmony. He knew only that their decision to help this woman had been correct.
It was Angus who spoke. “It is true,” he said. “You are the one. You have the magic of conversion, and I will help you in whatever way I can, until you have accomplished your purpose.”
We all will. Seqiro thought, interpreting the sentiment of the others.
Darius realized that it had been only to enlist the active help of the giant that Nona had played the dulcimer. But the magic had touched them all. They were all committed to her mission.
“Thank you,” Nona said. “But I know so little—only that I must enlist the help of the Megaplayers.”
“By that you mean those who left the large instruments on your world,” Angus said. “I can tell you a good deal about that. But perhaps it will be easier to understand if first I tell you one of our leading myths, which I think is not current on your own world.”
“A myth?” Nona asked. “What I want is to bring the anima. How can a myth relate to that?”
“It does relate,” the giant assured her. “It concerns the bringing of the animus to Jupiter by a peon named Earle. I believe it will provide insight into a task whose nature you may not as yet perfectly understand.”
She considered that. She nodded. “It is true that there is no such myth among my people. We don’t even have peons; we have theows. If you believe it will help—”
“I believe it will. Then we shall discuss it, and perhaps come to understand how to accomplish your purpose. Make yourselves comfortable, for the telling will take an hour.”
Nona made pillows for them all, and they settled down to listen to the Myth of Earle.
CHAPTER 7—EARLE
IN the early eons, the anima governed our world you call Jupiter, and the women had the magic and ruled the men. Earle was too virile for this, and resolved to bring the animus and set things right. He was the firstborn son of the firstborn son, down through the eight generations since the anima had taken hold. He alone had the power, for the amazons had killed all the other perfect firstborn males on all the other worlds. Jupiter was a tiny world in an almost endless chain of worlds along a filament that went into a dead-end curl. This alone accounted for its being overlooked by the dread forces of the anima. They had killed most firstborns here too, but had been somewhat lax in the outlying provinces, so his family line had escaped.