So it was. In a moment they rounded the bend and rejoined the three, who were waiting expectantly. This time all three stepped forward to embrace their chosen people, as if long separated from friends. Darius, Stave, and Nona submitted with resignation.
“All we are missing is a mare,” Darius muttered as they followed the rabble folk on down into the planet.
There was the sound of hooves.
It was a brown mare, with brown eyes and yellow mane. She nuzzled Seqiro. She seemed to be ready to mate.
Her name is Bel, Seqiro thought. But her mind is as obscure as the others. It seems to be of similar intelligence. She will soon be in heat.
“These encounters are no coincidence,” Darius said. “They saw us coming. They must be trying to lull us by suggesting that they find us attractive for breeding purposes. But what is their real object?”
I can not fathom that in any of them.
“But as long as we are sure they are not hostile, we can go with them,” Nona said. “If they remain friendly long enough, we shall be able to endure until Colene and Provos return with our information.”
“I think I would rather have encountered vicious monsters,” Darius said. “Then we could have settled with them and known where we stood. These folk may be friendly, but let’s not reveal the several powers we have until such time as we have to.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Nona said. “They won’t expect magic in a woman.”
“Or in men who have been exiled,” Stave said.
“Or in a horse,” Darius added.
Agreed.
“Are we sure we have magic here?” Stave inquired. “The rabble are confined because they are subhuman, having no magic at all, but that might be because no magic works here.”
That could account for my difficulty getting into their minds, Seqiro thought. My ability is limited in range on the surface, and perhaps limited in depth here.
“We had better test it,” Darius said. “The moment the natives give us another moment by ourselves.”
“Which is right now,” Darius said. He brought out his icon of himself, invoked it, and lifted it slightly. He felt his body being tugged upward. His magic still worked.
Meanwhile a picture appeared on the wall, of the four of them. That meant that Stave’s power of illusion was functional. And a loose stone on the floor lifted, hovered, circled, and dropped. Nona’s levitation remained.
“Our powers remain,” Darius said. “So probably yours does too, Seqiro. After all, you have been mind-talking with us throughout. But the minds here are hard for you to get into. Once you fathom them, they may be as easy to read as ours are.”
There is something else, the horse thought grimly. I start to penetrate the minds, then lose my way. That has never happened before.
They walked on around the turn. There were the four rabble. The three human ones came to embrace, and the mare to sniff noses. There certainly was something odd; why did they always repeat these actions after such brief separations?
Now the tunnel opened out into a larger system. There was a broad center passage, with many intersecting tunnels. This might be the equivalent of a village.
Still the four who had introduced themselves disappeared and reappeared, just stepping momentarily out of sight as the group walked on. Finally Seqiro figured it out: They are changing creatures! Every few minutes we are in the company of four new ones who look, sound, and smell like the others.
“Now, that’s interesting,” Darius said. “That accounts for your inability to penetrate their minds: you’re continually working on new, unfamiliar minds. But what is the point?”
If I could focus on a single mind for a longer period, I should be able to discover that.
“Then we must help you to do that. How can we prevent one of them from changing?”
“By preventing her from stepping out of our sight,” Stave said. “I think I could do that, but I’m not sure how you would feel about it, Nona.”
“I am nervous about being ignorant in this place,” Nona said. “If you can hold yours, do it.”
So Stave proceeded to do that. When the next group came to embrace, he welcomed it, and did not let his yellow-haired-and-eyed woman Keli go. Instead he kissed her again. “Maybe you are right,” he told her carefully in her dialect. “Maybe we had better breed.”
Nona faced away, protecting her expression. Now she understood why he had thought she might object. Nevertheless, she made a running translation for Darius; she wrestled with the variants of words, and as she managed to grasp them, Seqiro relayed the meanings.
Keli was delighted. “Now!” she exclaimed, tugging at her tight tunic.
“Maybe not right now, for we of the surface have peculiar conventions. We like to be alone for such activity.”
“I will take you to a private chamber!” she said eagerly.
“But we also like to get to know each other first,” he continued. “We prefer to have an enduring relationship. That takes time.”
“But that is not needed for breeding!” she objected. “You cannot remain with me after breeding.”
“Now, this is interesting,” Nona murmured. “Women who prefer to breed and run?”
“That is not the way the women of my world feel,” Darius said.
But it is for my kind.
Both Darius and Nona smiled.
“It is the way it must be,” Keli said. “You must not stay with the one you have bred.”
“Why not?” Stave inquired. The other rabble folk were moving on ahead, but he held Keli, who seemed quite willing to remain. “I might want to do it again with you.”
“Oh!” She was shocked.
Meanwhile the others disappeared. But Keli, despite her distress, remained. She could not change with another who seemed exactly like her.
“I am from the surface, and ignorant of your ways,” Stave said patiently. “You will have to explain to me why I can not breed with you repeatedly, if I like you.”
“Because you must be shared,” she said.
“But I want to share only with you.”
“No! With a thousand women!”
This surprised them all. “What?” Stave asked.
“You must breed with a thousand women before you can settle with one,” she explained. “It is the Way.”
“It is not my way. I want only one.”
Their party, still walking, caught up with the other three. They had changed, but Keli had not.
I am getting into her mind, Seqiro thought. She is not trying to mask her thoughts.
“I think none of them are,” Darius said. “They merely keep changing, for what reason we hope to learn.”
Stave embraced Keli as the others embraced their own. “Maybe after the thousand,” she said. “Then you will be free.”
“I’m free now,” he said.
Now her look was sad. “You are not.”
“But I am. If I do not like it here, I will leave.”
“You can not. You must breed.”
She is speaking the truth. She believes we are captives.
Darius looked around. They were coming to a central garden spot, where many men were working. The plants were unlike those of the surface, which had a superficial resemblance to those of his reality and Colene’s. These didn’t bother; they were weirdly fractal, with branches radiating out into further branches, but no obvious roots or stems or leaves. Some seemed kaleidoscopic, and some like assorted fish eyes, and yet others like bunches of feathers. Some were squares piled on squares, or fragments of squares, becoming crystalline, reminding nun of the valleys of his home. There seemed to be an infinite variety, but he could not see how they grew or how they were used.