"She would," Marionette said with muted colors.
"There is a problem," Warp agreed.
"As for emulating the Prince, you as a Glamor do have the ability. All you will require will be a little practice and information on his foibles. We will have a banquet this day, where you can observe him. Tomorrow you should be ready."
So it seemed. But he had another question. "I lack experience rescuing captive Princesses. Do I sneak in, cut through a wall, and carry her out?"
"Negation. The rebel stronghold is too well guarded, and they might kill the Princess rather than let her be rescued by stealth. No, you will have to go openly, as the Prince coming to win her from oppression. They will have to admit you, though they will try their best to prevent you from succeeding. They won't do it openly, because it would give them a bad reputation, but there will be seemingly coincidental impediments for you to navigate. Beware, for example, of the Evil Sorcerer's daughter, Naughty Nautilus, who will try to subvert you. She might even pretend to be the Princess, to trick you into marrying her. That would be politically awkward for me."
"I can take Marionette along to safeguard my virtue."
"Negation. There is no one she could impersonate credibly, and as a non-Glamor she would be in danger as you are not. She must remain here, out of view, until your return. Be assured we will treat her well."
He wants to hold me hostage against your performance! Marionette thought indignantly The canny rascal!
"Agreement," Warp flashed, not completely pleased.
"I have a question," the King said via colors. "We are a relatively primitive society, hardly even aware of outer space. We can't leave our waters on our own. What good can we do your Coalition?"
"We don't know," Warp said. "But our special powers indicate that we do need you. It seems that the machines know it too; they have a scout in this vicinity of space."
"The machines," the King repeated. "I know of them, having been advised by visitors from another culture.
But I have not informed my subjects, as there is nothing we can do and the news would alarm them. I prefer that this aspect be kept private."
"Understanding. Agreement. Perhaps it is best that our alien nature be concealed also. We are merely visitors from a far kingdom."
"A Glamor visitor and his consort," the king agreed. "They will assume that you are here to negotiate for the tentacle of my daughter."
"The Prince is not a Glamor?"
"He is not. My daughter the Princess is the only other Glamor in the kingdom."
"If she is a Glamor," Marionette asked, "how can she be held captive?"
The king's tentacles writhed uncomfortably. "The Evil Wizard Naught used treachery to obtain her ikon. He sealed it in a vial, and anchored the vial in a region without magic. That reduced her to mortal status. She was making a state visit at the time; he took her prisoner and holds her hostage. It is a serious violation of protocol, but he is not much of a respecter of protocol. No wizard is."
"Hostage?" Warp asked.
"He wants to marry her, and thus have a claim to usurp my authority."
"But surely she wouldn't let him do that!" Marionette said.
"She may not have a choice. The ceremony is scheduled for next month, once his minions have gathered. She will be drugged."
"But that can't be legitimate."
"It won't be ethical, but the fact of the marriage will swim. Unless you rescue her first."
"I will do that," Warp said. "Do you have any idea where her ikon is kept?"
"Negation. That is part of the challenge of the rescue. You will need to torture a minion into revealing its location."
"This is a challenge," Warp said. "I can't handle an ikon. I will have to take Marionette along."
"Negation. Without information she can't help you."
"I can't help myself if there's no one to carry that ikon."
"If you locate it, we can send someone to take it."
Warp suppressed his frustration. The king was evidently set in his ways.
The banquet was quite fancy. Colorful serving girls brought shells piled with raw clams, chopped eels, selected seaweed, and mounds of jellyfish. It actually turned out to be delicious.
Meanwhile Warp and Marionette quietly observed Prince Ium. He was a noble-looking Ammonoid with excellent manners. He would surely make a suitable figurehead king.
Warp was able to explore his mind somewhat. Now he understood the nature of the torture to which he had been subjected. They had tied him down, then slowly burned back his tentacles, one by one, to extract the maximum pain.
Ium had withstood that pain, refusing to capitulate. When the last tentacle was gone, they had heated his shell, almost cooking his brain. This was the worst. The tentacles grew back in due course, but the brain was partially destroyed, and that could not be healed.
Then they had released him, knowing he was no further threat to them. It was the Princess who was the real challenge. They couldn't torture her the same way; even though she could not do Glamor magic, she remained a formidable creature. Also, they needed her to be functional, for the time when she would be a figurehead Queen.
It wasn't cowardice that stopped the Prince. It was that he no longer had the mental skills required to operate effectively in a dangerous situation. He would only mess it up, and he knew it. His avoidance of this mission was rational.
He did love the Princess, and with her support he knew he could do well. He knew the standard protocols, and could fulfill them, leaving the real governing to la. He didn't mind being a figurehead, considering his limitations.
Warp noted those limitations carefully. He would emulate them to the extent feasible when impersonating the Prince. He would also do his best to win back some respect for the Prince, who was after all worthy.
But still he wondered: what was there in all this that would materially help the Coalition fight the machines?
There certainly had to be something, with both Voila and the machines agreeing on it. But what could it be? Warp was baffled.
He got to spend the night with Marionette. They twined tentacles and compared notes. They also rehearsed the Ammonoid way of making love, just in case they should need that skill. Or so they told each other.
In the morning, which was a schedule rather than any great brightening of the day, Warp set off for the castle of the Usurper. This was a formal mission that the enemy could not decline. Theoretically relations were friendly, and the Princess was merely extending her visit, enjoying the hospitality. The Prince was coming to confer with her. Both would be feted. Then he would depart, while the Princess would elect to visit a while longer.
Warp had hardly started before there was a formidable natural barrier. Fire was burning the field of seaweed through which he had to pass. The flames reached right up to the surface of the sea; there was no way over them.
It was illusion, of course, surely the work of Evil Sorcerer Naught. Flames did not flicker that way in water. As a Glamor he could see though that illusion and know it to be nothing. But he couldn't just walk through them, because other denizens of the sea would believe the fire was real. He had to handle the flames as if they were real, showing no special magical abilities himself.
He explored the situation with clairvoyance and near future paths seeing. Most paths led to his exposure as a magician, and perhaps more. But there was a natural way through.
He found a hillock in the ocean floor and jetted backward, jamming the point of his shell into the ground. Then, anchored, he started jetting water forward toward the wall of flames. The current intersected the wall, and pushed it.
He continued, forming a rupture as the flames ballooned in that section, stretching out. Then they snapped, stretched beyond their capacity, for even illusion had limits. There was a hole in the wall.