Finally they agreed to draw lots. They made six threads, and one girl would hold them in her closed hand, only the ends projecting. That girl would have the one remaining after the others had chosen. No one wanted to hold them.
This was foolish, Shee realized. The order surely made no difference, as the brigands would be set up to give the same test to each girl. And each choice would be random, including the last one. "I'll hold them," she said.
She did. They drew, and she was left with the third longest thread. She would go third, right in the middle.
She did. She felt dread as she entered that forbidden path, without knowing why. She was hyper alert. She knew the brigands would catch her. How could she escape them?
Something opened in her mind, like a wall being breached, and she discovered a desperate strategy. It would require apt timing and nerve, and a vicious ploy, but it just might get her through. She remembered something Stubtoe had said in passing, years before. She hoped it was accurate.
And there they were: two rough men blocking the path ahead. She turned as if to flee the way she had come, but knew before she saw him that the third would be there to prevent her escape. She had walked into their trap.
She screamed.
The men laughed as they advanced on her. She tried to dodge around them, but the path was narrow here and the Chroma zones on either side prevented her. They caught her.
She screamed again as one brigand picked her up and somehow folded her over and pushed her head down against his belly. The second brigand pushed up her skirt and ripped off her panties. She kicked violently, but he just stepped in between her legs and poked his finger into her open cleft. "Nice slit," he said, jamming the finger into her vagina.
"Quit pussyfooting," the brigand who held her said. "Do her, and then hold her for me."
The second man dropped his trousers. Her head was upside down but in excellent position to see his huge standing member. He moved forward.
Now! She reached below and behind her head and found the holder's crotch. She worked the buttons on his fly opening it. He didn't notice. He was distracted by the sight of her open cleft with the other man's approach; men liked to watch as well as to do. It turned them on.
She reached in and found his penis. It was turgid. She pulled it out. Then he became aware. "Hey!"
She slid her other hand to the base of the member and found the scrotum. It remained flaccid.
She gasped it, centering the marbles within between her thumbs and fingers, and squeezed. Hard.
The brigand screamed and dropped her. She landed on her feet between the two men, falling back against the one who had been about to rape her. She dropped her head lower, reached between her own legs, and caught his exposed member. In a moment she had his scrotum too, and pulped it and its contents with her desperately clenching fist.
Then she lurched forward, low, between the spread legs of the first man, who was oblivious as he howled in pain. She jammed through, emerging behind him. She straightened up and ran, leaving the men tangled together. The third brigand yelled, but could not get by the other two in time to catch her; she had too big a lead, and was running for her life. Her seeming life.
She made it to the village. She was the fastest, and won the mission.
"Amazement," Ennui said.
"They put me in my final body, prettier than the ones I had had before," Shee said. "But my brain was untouched."
"Realization: that was why you asked Havoc to let you take the lead. To override the memory of the kind of sex the brigands practiced."
"Affirmation. He is a different kind of man." She glanced at the older woman, picking up the signs. "You have had experience."
"Affirmation. I once killed a man in a roughly similar maneuver, to save Havoc."
"I know you have reservations about me," Shee said. "And they are justified. But can we be friends? I don't mean by oath; just preference."
Ennui put her hand on Shee's hand. "Affirmation."
"I will be satisfied to have you carry my ikon, if it comes to that."
"I will be satisfied to carry it, if it comes to that. But I will try to have it given to Symbol."
They dropped the dialogue and oriented on the rocket as it descended toward the staging port for the undersea city.
Chapter 8 Flame
Flame received her mother's mental signal. Yes, Gale, she thought. Something has come up. Are you available?
As it happened, she was, as Gale knew. Fifth was away and she had nothing important to do. On my way.
Flame conjured herself to the royal suite. "What is it?"
"The machines are running a test project, to find out how well human beings can survive when deprived of the benefits of magic and civilization. The other Glamors are occupied at the moment, and I am serving as the central communications person. This is new."
"A machines project? How can we affect it?"
"They actually extended an invitation," Gale said. "They want ten family units. They promise to return them safely when the project is done, and Idyll says they mean it. Subterfuge is alien to their nature; they don't need it. But there is a caution: the machines might renege if they don't like the result. So I think we need to get a Glamor on the scene, covertly."
"Confusion. The machines invited human participation?"
"It seems it could affect their plans for conquest. If the humans survive the test, figuratively, they will be more difficult to subdue. The machines would then raise their offer for Voila."
"Question."
"They might allow us the semblance of self rule, leaving our governing apparatus in place."
"Meaning that you and Havoc would remain as queen and king," Flame said dryly. "After they conquer us."
"If Voila enlists, they won't even conquer us. They won't need to. At any rate, it behooves us to see that this project is fairly run. It might affect our attitude toward them."
"Details?"
"Nine families have already signed up. Yours would be the tenth."
"Complication: Fifth is occupied elsewhere." No need to explain how, or with whom; Gale already knew.
"And you have no children," Gale agreed. "I was thinking of mocking up an ad hoc family unit."
"Question?"
"You, a man, and a child. The machines really don't care about our conventions; to them marriage is a social nuance. They will settle for any committed semblance."
Flame thought of something. "Warp has business elsewhere that he wants concealed. I agreed to cover for him if need be. I could emulate him, so that he seems to be accounted for."
Gale took it in stride. "Then we need a woman and a child. As it happens, Marionette is available."
"She will do. We're friends." Marionette was the Earth Mistress who had governed the space ship that first took the four siblings to Earth. She had proved to be competent, generous, and fair, as well as phenomenally sexy, and Warp had been quite taken with her though she was five years his senior. In fact they planned to marry, once the machines crisis was done. "But we still lack a child."
"I think that will have to be your sister Vila."
"Objection: she is barely five!"
"The age Warp's child would be, if he had married Marionette at the outset."
"But the risk! She's mortal."
"Idyll says she will survive, and it should be excellent experience for her."
Flame capitulated. If Gale could handle it, so could she. "Acquiescence."
Gale nodded. "When you have time, you should review the history of Havoc with the girl Opaline. Idyll says that you will interact with Opaline later, so you need to know her nature. Here is the memory." She sent it in a concentrated mental capsule, and Flame filed it away for future reference.