“You know, Neysa—I know something of music myself. Not just whistling. I was introduced to it by a girl a bit like you, in your girl-form: very small, pretty, and talented. I’m not the top musician in my world, but I am competent—because music is part of the competition of the Game. You wouldn’t know about that, of course; it’s like a—like a continuing contest, a race, where every day you race someone new, in a different way, and if you get really good you gain status. I have won Games by playing themes better than other people. The violin, the clarinet, the tuba—I’ve played them all. I wish I could accompany you! I suppose I could whistle again, or sing—“ He shrugged. “But I’d really like to show you what I can do with an instrument. One like yours. Another harmonica. So we could play together. A duet. There’s a special joy in that, as great in its way as—as the joy we had in our game of the night. With an instrument, I could come to you, as you came to me, sharing your frame.”
Neysa accepted this as she did most of his commentary: with a wiggle of one ear and tolerance. She didn’t mind if in his vanity he thought he could play the way she could. She liked him anyway.
Stile pondered briefly, then made a little verse of it. “The harmonica is what you play; I wish I had one here today.” He fitted the words to her melody, singing them.
Neysa made an unmelodic snort, and Stile laughed. “Corny, I know! Doggerel is not my forte. All right, I’ll quit.”
But the unicorn slowed, then stopped, then turned about to retrace her last few steps. “What’s the matter?” Stile asked, perplexed. “If I offended you, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mess up your music.”
She fished in the tall grass with her horn. Something glittered there. Stile dismounted and walked around to examine it, fearing trouble. If it were another demon-amulet—
It was a large, ornate, well-constructed harmonica, seemingly new.
Stile picked it up, examining it in wonder. “You have a good eye, Neysa, spotting this, and it couldn’t have happened at a more fortuitous time. Why, this is from my world. See, it says MADE ON EARTH. Earth has a virtual monopoly on quality musical instruments. Most colonies are too busy to specialize in the arts.
This is a good brand. I’m no specialist in this particular instrument, but I’ll bet I could play—“ He looked around. “Someone must have lost it. I’m not sure it would be right to—“ He shook his head. “Yet it won’t help the owner, just to leave it here. I suppose I could borrow it, until I can return it to—“
Having rationalized the matter. Stile remounted his straw saddle—which seemed to be holding up extra-ordinarily well, packing into an ideal shape—and settled down for the resumption of the ride. Neysa moved into a smooth running walk, and played her horn, and Stile tried out the harmonica.
It was a lovely instrument. It had sixteen holes, which would translate into thirty-two notes: four oc-aves. It was, in addition, chromatic; it had a lever at the end which, when depressed, would shift the full scale into the half-tones. There were also several buttons whose purpose he did not fathom; he would explore those in due course.
Stile put his mouth to it, getting the feel of it, blowing an experimental note. And paused, surprised and gratified; it was tremolo, with the peculiar and pleasant beat of two closely matched reeds. He blew an experimental scale, pursing his lips to produce a single note at a time. This harmonica was extremely well constructed, with no broken reeds, and every note was pure and in perfect pitch.
Very good. Neysa had halted her music, curious about his activity. Stile essayed a melody. He kept it simple at first, playing no false notes, but the instrument was so conducive and the sound so pleasant that he soon broke into greater complexities.
Neysa perked her ears to listen. She turned her head to glance obliquely back at him, surprised. Stile paused.
“Yes, I really can play,” he said. “You thought I was a duffer? That whistling represented the epitome of my achievement? I love music; it is another one of those things that come easily to a lonely person. Of course I’m not as sharp on the harmonica as I am on other instruments, and I can’t play elaborately, but—“
She blew a note of half-negation. “What, then?” he inquired. “You know, Neysa, it would be easier for me if you talked more—but I guess you’d have to change to your human form for that, and then we couldn’t travel properly. You know, you really surprised me when you—do you call it shape-changing? Permutation? Reformulation? It was an aspect of you I had never suspected—“
She blew another note, three-quarter affirmation. He was getting better at grasping her communications. “You’re still trying to tell me something,” he said. “I’m pretty good at riddles; that’s another aspect of the Game. Let’s see—is it about your manifestation as—no? About my reaction to it? You say half-right. About my surprise—your surprise? Ah, now I get it! You were just as amazed to discover I could play a musical instrument as I was to see you in human form.”
Neysa made an affirmation. But there was still a slight reservation. Stile pursued the matter further. “And, just as your change of form enabled us to inter-act in a new and meaningful way—though not more meaningful than this joy of traveling together across this beautiful land—my abruptly revealed facility with music enables us to interact in yet another way.” He smiled. “Which is what I was trying to tell you before —oh, you mean now you agree! You—no, you couldn’t be apologizing! Unicorns never make mistakes, do they?”
She made a little buck, just a warning. He laughed. “Well, let’s get to it,” he said, pleased. He put the harmonica to his mouth and played an improvised theme, sending the perfect notes ringing out over the plain between the mountain ranges. Now Neysa joined in, and they made beautiful harmony. Her hooves beat the cadence, in effect a third instrument. The resulting duet was extremely pretty.
Stile experimented with the mystery buttons, and discovered that they were modes, like those of a good accordion; they changed the tones so that the harmonica sounded like other instruments, to a degree. One canceled the tremolo effect; another brought into play an octave-tuned scale. Another rendered the instrument into a diatonic harmonica, with the popular but incomplete scale and slightly differing tone arrangement. This was the most sophisticated harmonica he had ever played. That only increased his wonder that it should have been so carelessly lost out here. If he dropped such an instrument, he would search for hours to locate it, for it was a marvel of its kind. Who could have left it without a search?
Stile taught Neysa a song, and she taught him one. They played with improvisations to the beat of differing gaits. They did responsive passages, one taking the main theme, the other the refrains. They played alto and tenor on a single theme.
But soon something developed in the atmosphere—a brooding presence, an intangible power. It intensified, becoming almost visible.
Stile broke off his playing. Neysa halted. Both looked about.
There was nothing. The presence was gone.
“You felt it too?” Stile asked. Neysa flicked an ear in assent. “But what was it?”
She shrugged, almost dislodging his impromptu saddle. Stile checked his woven-straw cinch to see if it was broken. It wasn’t; the strap had merely worked loose from the ring, as happened on occasion. He threaded it through again, properly, so that it would hold.
And did a double take. Strap? Ring?
He jumped to the ground and looked at his handiwork. Loose straw was shedding from it, but underneath it was a well-made if battered leather saddle, comfortable from long use.
He had fashioned a padding of straw. It had been straw this morning when he put it on her. Where had the saddle come from?