Slowly the woman untied him, and then tied herself as well as she was able. Darius helped at the end, directly instead of indirectly. She was now helpless.
Almost. Her change of form was now complete. She looked exactly like Colene.
“Come to me, my love!” she cried in Colene’s voice. She had picked even that up from his mental image. It was just as if Darius’ girlfriend were bound before him. Would that make him succumb?
Darius stared down at her. Then he lay down with her, not putting his tunic back on. He embraced her, both of them naked.
Nona’s heart sank. The man knew that this wasn’t Colene, yet he was doing it! What was wrong with him? Was the likeness everything, and the reality nothing?
But Darius was not doing anything. He merely lay there, embracing the tied woman. She was as confused as Nona was. “But my love—” she said.
“My love is Colene, whom you now resemble,” he told her. “I am lying with you as I lie with her.”
“But is she not willing?”
“She is willing and eager.”
“But—”
“She is underage, by the standard of her culture.”
Nona understood the woman’s confusion and amazement. She had thought she had won, then lost, then thought she had managed to win another way, and now learned that this too was a loss, for a reason she had not anticipated. It had been a mistake to emulate Colene, for Colene was sexually forbidden by his code.
Now it was Seqiro’s turn. The horse and the mare approached each other. They sniffed noses, and then tails.
Then Seqiro turned away. She is not equine, he thought. I have now reached far enough into her mind to learn her nature.
“Not a mare?” Nona asked. “But isn’t she as much a horse as the others are human? Isn’t she in heat?”
She is coming into heat. But her species is not mine. She is a horse-dragon crossbreed, assuming the form but not the nature of a horse. I breed only with my own species.
Nona was pleasantly amazed. She had thought this contest lost, and instead it was won. “But how did you not know this before?”
I had not focused fully on her mind while dealing with the others. She seemed like a horse and smelled like a horse. But I require also the mind of a horse, and her mind is alien. Her odor has no further effect.
Bel was not ready to be spurned. She advanced on Seqiro. He avoided her, stepping aside as she came to him. She turned to encounter him again, only to find him moving away again. He could read her mind; he knew what she was doing, and avoided it at the same time as she did it. She could not close with him.
She gave up on the equine form, and shifted to what seemed to be her natural one. It was indeed somewhat dragon-like, with a solid tail, short legs, clawed feet, and a large head with endless teeth. A fighting form.
I can not fight that, the horse thought.
“You don’t have to,” Nona said. “Call her bluff.”
Seqiro was surprised, but then read the concept in her mind. He stopped avoiding the dragoness and stood still.
She came at him with her jaws wide. He didn’t flinch, knowing what was in her mind. She stopped, threshing her tail in annoyance.
It didn’t matter, because hurting was not permitted in this contest. The visiting surface folk were too valuable. Bel might bite Seqiro to death, but she couldn’t force him to breed. She could not tie him up and make him do it, because he would be potent only when the smell and species were right. He had won, really, by default.
But another day they will have a true mare here, Seqiro thought warningly.
“We will tackle that problem when it comes,” Darius said. But Nona felt his concern. They were winning today by illusion and novelty. It would not be enough in other circumstances.
Now it was Nona’s turn. Unfortunately she could not simply decline the honor. She could use neither illusion nor self-conjuration to defend herself.
But she could use her magic, and now was the time.
Null-Darius advanced on her. She decided to take no chances; once he caught hold of her, she would have to do something desperate to escape, and if she hurt him she would be declared the loser, which would surely mean something she didn’t like. Of the several types of magic available to her, most would not be effective here. Transformation of objects would not help when there were no objects to transform. The same went for conjuration of objects, and she couldn’t do it with living people. Healing would not enter into it, because nobody was supposed to be hurt. Expansion or compaction—maybe she could do something with the ribbon, then transform it. But for right now, illusion and levitation seemed to be her choices, and illusion probably would not be very effective, because Null-Darius had seen Darius use it.
So as the man reached for her, she sailed up into the air and hovered above him, out of his reach. He gaped up at her, and there was another murmur of awe from the throng. They really appreciated true magic!
But a commotion developed. Surprise was becoming confusion. What was bothering them? They were beginning to look at Darius and Stave, and showing anger.
Then she realized that even here in the nether realm they had to know that only despot men had such powers of magic, not theow women. They thought that a man was helping her to duel. If so, they would declare her to have forfeited. That could not be allowed.
“No,” she said. “I am the one. I am the ninth of the ninth. I am hiding from the despots.”
The rabble whose minds Seqiro had penetrated understood her. They spoke to their companions, and in a moment there was a babble throughout the throng as the news was relayed. Her secret was out, but there had been no way to avoid it.
Then Null-Darius spoke. “You may be that, but that is nothing to us. The change of animus does not affect the rabble. You still must breed. After you have finished with us, then you may return to fulfill your destiny.”
“Unless I defeat you,” she replied evenly.
He shrugged. He walked to the edge and fetched a coil of ribbon. He returned, hefting a loop of it. The material looked thin and light, but she had seen how strong it was, and knew that it had enough solidity to be thrown.
He hurled the loop up at her. She flew up higher, avoiding it. He could not catch her that way.
“But how long can you hover?” he asked.
There was the problem. Levitation might look easy to those who had no magic, but it required as much energy as running, and she was already breathing rapidly. Those who had practiced it all their lives, like Angus, could float for a long time, but Nona had not had that opportunity. She could remain up for a while, but not for a day and a night. When she had to come down, tired, Null-Darius would be there.
She could not depend on avoiding him. She had to incapacitate him. That meant tying him up.
But he was larger and surely stronger than she. He would remove any loops she threw about him as fast as they came. Unless she found a way to tie him quickly and effectively.
She considered as she hovered. Then she thought of a way. She was not sure it would be effective, but it was worth trying.
She conjured the other coil of ribbon to her. It was not easy performing two types of magic simultaneously, and it tired her more rapidly, but she could do it. Then she formed a loop and used the expansion magic that Angus had helped her to discover. The loop became enormous and heavy. She could not hold it up, and had to drop it. But she re-formed it into an open-bottomed cage, and guided it to land on Null-Darius.
It trapped him nicely. While he stared at it in surprise she transformed the bottom edges of it into a flat plate that closed it under the man. Now he was sealed in.
She landed, breathing hard. Had this not worked, she would have had to come down anyway, and he would have had her.
The man took hold of the bars of the cage, but she quickly hardened them into steel-like strength, and he could not budge them. He felt all around it, but it was tight, having been adapted from one piece of ribbon. He was fairly caught. She had won.
He took it philosophically. “I would really have liked to breed with you,” he said. “Not only are you a real human creature, you are beautiful. But the magic that makes you so wonderful also makes you unconquerable.”
“So now we are free,” she said, satisfied. “All of us have won our duels.”
“Until tomorrow,” he agreed.
“Tomorrow?”
“When your next duels begin. You have won only the right not to breed with us whom you have defeated; the remainder of your thousand have not yet been decided.”
Nona was appalled, but the confirmation was coming in from the others. The man spoke the truth. Indeed, this had been clear throughout, and others had remarked on it. She just had not let it register for her own situation.
They had always said that the requirement was a thousand breedings for each of them. That meant that they were still trapped here for a long time. They could fight it every day against new opponents, or submit to it without resistance, but they would not be able to leave the nether world to complete their mission. The only way they could have the freedom to leave their duel-daises for parts of the day was to breed early, so that no further contests were necessary. In short, to capitulate.
What were they to do?