The answer was yes: the more magic the better. It just took some getting used to.
Colene caught her eye again and nodded. The girl was reassured by Nona’s experience. Her power might be slight compared to that of the horse, but it was nevertheless significant, and it might grow.
Provos was sleeping. It seemed best for the two of them to do the same. They might be busy far into the night.
AT dusk they reached the East Sea. Angus was plainly tired. He would not be able to do anything more than set them down and move away. But he had gotten them here, and the despots had not intercepted them.
Now it was time to do their routine, to fool the despots about their real purpose here.
Angus came down beyond the castle, well away from the place of the instruments. He stood there a moment, and put his hand down to the ground. A blackbird turned in the air, spying the giant: the despots were being alerted.
Angus straightened up and started walking. He was as tall as the trees of the forest, and he moved rapidly. He was not physically tired, but magically tired; this was a rest for him as well as a distraction for the despots.
Colene!
It was Seqiro’s thought, sent to all of them. They had come within the horse’s range! Nona’s relief was so great she was unable to formulate a thought right away.
“Did you get Stave?” Colene cried.
Yes. He is with us. We are hiding in the forest. We have been moving around all day, avoiding the despots.
“Then come to us!” Colene said joyfully. “Angus, hold out your other hand.”
The giant did so. The horse and two men appeared in it. They had been reunited!
“Where are the despots?” Colene asked as Nona waved to Stave.
“Everywhere,” Darius replied. “Their familiars are scouting all around, and the despots of the rest of the world are doing the same. They knew you were coming, but not where you would land. They will close in on us the moment Angus slows.”
Nona saw that the man held a new little doll figure he had crafted: one which resembled Stave. He must have had to conjure himself into Stave’s cell, to get the necessary air, liquid, and solid for the conjuration of the new person.
Angus paused, and bent down again, touching the ground with the backs of his hands. After a moment he stood again, resuming his walk. Now the despots had another site to investigate; their familiars had not been close enough to see whether the giant had actually put anyone down, and there could be people fleeing into the forest.
“We’ll have to act quickly, when we do,” Darius said. “We don’t know how long it will take to get you through the anchor.”
Nona glanced at Provos. The woman seemed unconcerned. That should be a good sign.
Angus made two more pauses, roughly circling the despots’ castle. Then he came to the field near the instruments.
There were no despots there. They had been fooled into thinking it wasn’t important. Angus stopped near the brink.
“Go!” Colene exclaimed, jumping off the hand. Provos and Nona followed her. Darius and Stave got off the other hand and came to join them.
Provos seemed to know what she was doing. She walked briskly to the brink and reached for Nona’s hand.
Nona concentrated, trying to will the anima into being. Would it work without the music?
Provos disappeared.
Colene took Nona’s hand. “Keep an eye out for our return,” she said. “And watch yourself with my horse, woman.”
Nona had to smile. She willed the anima again, and Colene disappeared.
They are coming.
Nona ran back to the giant’s hand, paced by Stave and Darius. They climbed on, while Seqiro remained on the other hand. Angus stood.
Indeed, horses were galloping toward them from the village. Nona didn’t want to find out what mischief the despots had in mind; death might be the least of it.
Angus reached down toward the sea. For him there was no cliff, merely a rocky bank with old musical instruments leaning against it. He put his hand to the huge hole in the mandolin. The three of them climbed into the hole. Then the other hand brought Seqiro down, and the horse joined them.
An image of Angus appeared with them. “If I do not see you again, I wish you success,” he said. “Now conjure yourselves away; I will close my hands about images and pretend I am still carrying you.”
“Thank you, good friend!” Nona cried as the image faded.
The hand withdrew, pausing only to make a wave with the fingers. Then they felt the shudder of the ground as Angus tramped away.
Darius faced the horse. “Seqiro, can you find any mind near here in the ground? I must see through that mind’s eyes before I conjure us there.”
Yes, there is one. The mind is open. Here are the eyes.
“Then take hold,” Darius said, doing so himself. He held dolls of all of them, and he was ready to whisper to them, to make them ready for his magic.
Nona and Stave put their hands on the body of the horse.
Darius marked circles, then moved the dolls. There was the wrenching of conjuration.
CHAPTER 9—VIRTUAL
COLENE blinked, looking for Provos. There she was, waiting just ahead. Nothing seemed to have changed, except that all the others were gone. There were no people and no horses, just a sea-edge landscape.
Colene had not seen this place from within the Virtual Mode before. They had been spinning through realities, and stepped out the moment things stabilized. Perhaps it had been involuntary, the result of the spuming; they had been thrown out by centrifugal force. Actually there was no such force, she knew; it was an illusion, an apparent force, the result of inertia diverted. But for all that, it had a measurable effect, just as magic did. Anyway, now the two of them were back on the Virtual Mode, and Colene felt oddly at home here, though she wished Darius and Seqiro were with her.
But it was dangerous too. Fortunately both she and Provos were experienced here, and would not make obvious mistakes. The first of which was to get separated from each other. A person could quickly get lost amidst realities.
Colene closed her eyes and turned around, tuning in on her own anchor, Earth. She could sense where it was, or at least in what direction it was. Provos would be able to sense her own. They could probably sense the other anchors too, if they tried. Without that ability, they could truly get lost.
She felt the direction, and stopped, facing it. She opened her eyes.
She was facing directly out toward the sea.
Oh, no. They couldn’t walk that way, and it would be disastrous to try to swim in that cold, choppy water. With magic they had been able to walk under it, but Colene had no magic, and neither did Provos.
Could they make a boat? No, because anything they made would disappear in ten feet, dumping them. The only material that would stay with them would be from an anchor reality—and if they stepped out onto Oria to get it, they would be stuck there again, with the despots waiting. So crossing the sea was out.
But maybe they could go around it. In fact, if they just walked beside it, in due course the realities would change so that there would no longer be a sea there, and they could cross whatever was there. It was frustrating to have to lose time in a detour, but that was just the way it was.
She turned to the other woman. “What do you think, Provos?”
But Provos was already stepping out, knowing where she was going—toward the despots’ castle.