The car stopped at a school yard. It was now early afternoon. “She gets out in ninety minutes,” Slick said. “You can meet her when she walks home. Maybe she will think you’re a new student, or one she hasn’t met.”
Colene glanced at Provos. “Will this work?” she asked.
The woman seemed to understand her question from her memory of the future. She nodded affirmatively.
Colene returned to Slick. “But if you figure it’s this easy, what’s this business about money for a hotel room?”
“You need a base. Where you can talk. Maybe not a hotel. I always take a room when I travel. Whatever you need.”
Colene brought out the money, which she hadn’t really looked at before. The top bill was a hundred dollars. Under it were more of the same denomination. There could be several thousand dollars here. That made her nervous for a new reason. She had never carried such an amount before.
Then she got a notion. “Provos, you carry it.”
The woman’s hand was already extended. She took the money and put it out of sight.
Colene’s mind oriented on the next problem. “Maybe I can walk with her, but I can’t just take her away with me. Her folks would miss her and give the alarm.”
“Latchkey,” Slick said. “She’s alone for three hours.”
“Then I can talk to her at her house.”
“Maybe. Whatever works.”
Colene nodded. She could make do. “How close is this hotel?”
“A mile.”
She still wondered why he thought she needed a room for the night. But it seemed feasible. “Okay, let’s get that room.”
He started the car and drove them to the hotel. It was a fine modern building, surely expensive. The need for the money was becoming more credible.
Colene and Provos entered the lobby and proceeded to the desk. Now it was time for some business Darius wouldn’t have liked. But Darius didn’t know a lot about life in this reality.
Colene spoke to the clerk. “My aunt and I need a room. She’s from another country; she doesn’t speak English. She doesn’t use banks either; just cash. You have any problem with that?”
The clerk took it in stride. He accepted hundred-dollar bills for the double room and gave them change. He did not protest when Colene guided Provos’ hand for the signature on the bill. It occurred to Colene that some of the criminal types might use this hotel, so the personnel had learned to cope. Money was money.
The suite was beautiful. There were two big beds, a bathroom fit for a sultan, and a huge color TV set. A picture window looked out toward the school. “Gee, I hope we have reason to stay here the night!” Colene breathed.
That made her think of Darius. How she would have loved to get him into a room like this, all sumptuous and private, and tempt him until he just couldn’t stand it any more. Of course if she succeeded in seducing him, she would lose, because it wasn’t sex she wanted, but love. Yet she had to keep skirting that thin edge, risking what she feared. It was her nature. So she would have fought to make him get sexual, and been happy in her frustration when she failed.
But the notion of his getting sexual with any other woman was another matter. There was no temporizing there, no confusion of feelings: she didn’t want it. That Nona was too damned pretty! But at least her boyfriend Stave was there, and Stave was a sort of handsome, sort of decent hunk of young man. So Colene didn’t need to worry about that. And if there were demons in that underworld they were going to, well, demons were ugly creatures. Maybe in fantasy a demoness was luscious and seductive, but she was pretty sure that wouldn’t be the case in real life. And even if the demoness was sexy, what would she want with an ordinary mortal man? So Darius would not be facing any temptation there. He might get cut to pieces and eaten for supper, but not seduced. That was a relief.
A relief? What was she thinking of? Darius had had women galore in his home reality before he met Colene. She loved him anyway. She’d certainly rather have him seduced than dead! She knew he loved her, and that was what counted. She could survive her own jealousy and frustration, but she couldn’t survive his loss. All the same, she hoped there were no luscious creatures down inside that world.
Provos was already stripping her clothes. “But we have to go see Esta!” Colene protested. “We’ve used up most of our free time—”
The woman ignored her. Then Colene realized that this was her answer: they would be here for the night, and she would go alone to meet Esta. Provos really had no business on that excursion.
“Okay. I’ll see you later,” Colene said. “I guess you know how to turn on the TV. And you know not to go outside this room.”
She heard the water of the shower running. Provos was handling Earth okay.
Colene went back out to Slick. “Okay, we’re set. I’m ready for Esta.”
Slick nodded and started the car.
CHAPTER 12—DUEL
NONA stared at the multitude of the rabble. Directly before her was the one who was emulating her, still distressingly naked. Beside that one was the imitation Darius, looking so exactly like the original that without the help of the horse’s mind-magic she would not have known the difference. Indeed, she had not known, until it became apparent that the imitations could not talk in the manner of the originals. Beyond these was a massive throng of people in brown cloaks, male, female, and animal. Some of the animals were horselike, and some were doglike, but others were unlike anything seen on the surface. What were the true forms of the human rabble? Were they like those animals?
One thing was clear: a physical escape was impossible, unless certain conditions were met. If the rabble chose to let them through, or if Seqiro penetrated their minds and changed their wills, or if Darius conjured them out, or if Nona used her magic to float them over the heads of the rabble and away. But it was best not to reveal the nature of the assorted powers of the group. Not until it was a last resort.
Keli came out. “We have tried to make you want to breed with us,” she said. “It is better if you want it. But you must do it regardless. Please do it with me now, because you would not like it as much if we have to make you do it.”
“But surely they can’t make us breed against our will,” Nona said. Yet she feared that something like this was in the mind of the rabble, for attempts had been made to seduce each of the four of them.
Stave glanced at her. “The despots do.”
“But even with the despots, a person has to agree, or suffer privation,” she argued.
“They can make us suffer privation,” he pointed out. “They are many and we are few, and they possess the food.”
Nona realized that it was true. If they lacked the resources to escape without showing their powers, they also lacked the resources to maintain their independence. They would indeed be subject to the will of the rabble, in much the way they were subject to the will of the despots on the surface. The rabble did not possess superior magic, but did control the nether geography.
Still she argued against it. “A thousand breedings—I do not want even one! If I did, it would be with Stave, not with any of these creatures.”
“Thank you,” Stave said, and there was a surge of joy from him that showed how strongly he desired such a union. “But I fear they are about to use force.”
Seqiro must have translated that thought for Keli, because she responded to it. “Yes, we shall make you do it now. You must breed.”
“You will starve us until we agree?” Nona asked. It would be a while before they grew hungry, during which time they could plan their escape. In fact, she could make food for them out of hairs or fingernails; anything organic would do, to make anything else organic. But if the rabble discovered that, they would take other steps, and those could be less comfortable. The despots, too, had ways and ways, and could break most peons to their will in time without even using magic, if they chose.