Soon Pyramid came into sight above and ahead. It looked like a distant moon with a sharp triangular outline. It expanded as they contracted, until it resembled a close planet. Then it looked like a huge turning world. Each of its faces was a different color: blue, red, green, and the bottom was gray.
"This is wild," Dawn remarked appreciatively.
"And perhaps fun," Eve agreed.
They oriented on the middle of the triangle they were headed for: the blue face. "Forrest, maybe you should use the obscurity spell again," Imbri suggested.
Good idea. He reached back into his knapsack and brought out the can.
"Invoke," he said. Nothing happened, but it was probably working. Now no evil wizard would notice their landing, maybe.
"ooooh, we"re falling!" Dawn cried.
"But we can control it," Imbri said. "Just focus on slowing, when you wish to."
They came down onto a land that was surprisingly ragged, considering the evenness of the outline. There were mountains and ravines and tilted plains, with lakes splashed between. But what was Most remarkable was the color: it was all in shades of blue. Forrest hadn"t marveled about it before, being too distracted by the problem of landing safely. But now he realized that even the clouds they had pa.s.sed were blue. So this was no special effect, like the blue sky of Xanth; it was the color of the substance of this world on this side.
"I don"t think we"re on Ptero any more," Dawn murmured. "That isn"t the blue of North; it"s all over."
"The magic of Pyramid must be different from Ptero, just as Ptero"s magic is different from Xanth," Forrest said. "It may take us a while to adapt."
"I"m getting dizzy," Eve said. "The idea of not knowing the direction by color is awful! How will we know From and To?"
"There may not be any," Forrest said. "Age and geography may not be linked, on this world."
"oooh, ugh!" Dawn said.
"I hope I don"t get sick," Eve added.
"You may be feeling blue," Forrest said.
Both girls glanced at him sharply, and he realized that he had said something funny. He had been thinking of the loneliness of leaving one world and trying to adjust to another, but he doubted that they would believe that.
They had landed on a field between mountains. It was covered with blue gra.s.s and blue flowers. It was also tilted: when they stood, they were at an angle to the plain. But they were safely down. Imbri retained her mare form; evidently she had enough soul ma.s.s to a.s.sume her natural mode on this world. She was a glistening blue-black, with a sleek hide and nice mane and tail.
Dawn knelt to check the gra.s.s. "This is natural and friendly," she reported. "It will produce seeds for us, if we"re hungry."
Dawn got down beside a rock. "This is natural and friendly too," she said. "It will make itself soft if someone wants to sit on it."
So far, so good, Forrest thought. Given a choice, he preferred friendly things.
Then a horde of little creatures came charging across the ground toward them. They were like squirrels, except that they ran on their hind two legs. They were light blue.
"Are they friendly?" Forrest asked, worried.
"The gra.s.s says no," Dawn said.
"The rock says yes," Eve said.
Forrest made a quick calculation. "Does that mean that they eat gra.s.s and don"t eat rocks?"
"Yes," they said together.
Then the creatures were upon them. They formed circles around each of the four visitors, chirping avidly. They all stood perpendicular to the plane, in contrast to the visitors.
"These are lings," Dawn said as she touched one. "A variety of a broad species that appears in many places. There are Earthlings, Xanthlings, Pterolings, and Pyramidlings. They can make the impossible possible.
They are widespread on Pyramid. They noticed us because we stand skew and aren"t blue."
Forrest was impressed. Her talent went beyond what he had imagined.
"Maybe we need to change, so that we aren"t immediately obvious to folk we might not want to be obvious to," he said. "Also, I had better renew the spell of obscurity; it must have worn off."
"But if the magic is different here, the spell won"t work," Imbri pointed out. She didn"t use her mouth; she used a dreamlet. Evidently she was able to do multiple dreamlets here, having more than enough soul to go around, so they could all hear her at once.
"Unless the lings really can do the impossible," he replied. "Can they make us blue?"
"Yes," Dawn said after a moment. "And they can make us tilt with the land, the way they do. But there"s a cost."
"There always is," Imbri muttered.
"What cost?" Forrest asked warily.
Dawn touched the lings again, trying to understand. "Whoever gives anything away, on this world, gains equivalently." She looked up. "Does that makes sense? It seems impossible."
"And they are creatures of the impossible," Forrest said. "So it must be true. So maybe we don"t want to accept anything until we understand its consequence. If the giver gains, what does the receiver lose?"
Dawn"s brow furrowed as she concentrated on the little creatures. "The receiver gets smaller," she said. "The giver gets larger."
"Weird," Eve said.
"How much larger and smaller?" Forrest asked.
"Not a lot. But some. For an individual gift. Those who give a lot can become giants, eventually. But those who accept a lot can get rather small in time, and even disappear."
"Then let"s choose carefully," Forrest said. "I think we do need to merge with the natives, and if the obscurity spell doesn"t work-" He paused. "Can they fix that? It seems impossible, so-"
"Yes, they can," Dawn said.
"Then let"s accept three things from them: the ability to stand at right angles to the terrain, as they do, and blue color, and a working obscurity spell. I don"t think we need more. After all, Dawn"s & Eve"s talents are working, so maybe our direct personal magic isn"t lost."
"They"ll do it," Dawn said.
The lings closed in around the four, and suddenly they all changed color and tilted to conform to the terrain. The lings looked a size larger-and maybe the four visitors were a size smaller.
Forrest brought out his canned spell and invoked it. Then the lings lost interest, roaming on across the field, nibbling on stalks of gra.s.s.
So the blanket of obscurity was working again.
The four surveyed each other. Their tilt did not seem odd, because now they matched the lay of the land. But their color was something else.
Dawn"s red hair was now purple, and her white dress was pale blue. Eve"s black hair was midnight blue, and her dark dress was perhaps two hours off midnight, while her skin was light blue. Mare Imbri was also midnight blue. Forrest was medium blue, his furred legs darker than his upper torso, and his hoofs darker yet.
,"Actually, we don"t look bad," Dawn said, smiling. Her teeth were metallic blue.
"And now we fit in," Eve agreed. "This isn"t so bad, so far."
"So far," Forrest agreed. "But we know there are mean folk here, because of what they"re doing to Ptero, and we don"t know their full powers. That"s why I felt it was worth a price to become halfway anonymous."
"So now that we"re halfway anonymous, what next?" Imbri asked.
Forrest found decision making awkward, but that was his job now, so he pondered briefly. "We need to find the source of the margins.
I think the blue ones must come from this side of Pyramid. Maybe the center.
Dawn nodded. "Makes sense to me. So let"s go to the center. Do we know which way that is?"
Eve knelt down and touched the ground with one hand. "Yes. That way."
She pointed a direction.
"You can tell direction by feeling the ground?" Forrest asked.
"I can tell anything about anything inanimate. The ground is inanimate.
So I just selected for its orientation. The center of this face is that way."
"You girls really do have formidable talents," he said. "I didn"t realize how useful such magic could be."
Eve looked at Dawn. "He appreciates us. Shall I blush, or shall you?"
"It"s my turn, I think," Dawn said. Whereupon she turned as red as her hair. But since her hair was no longer red, but a shade of blue, her blush was blue too. However, it was a redder shade than the rest of her.
Forrest wasn"t sure whether they were teasing him again, and decided not to inquire. They might decide to make him blush again. They were being helpful now, but they remained mischievous girls.
They set off for the center of the blue triangle. However, they soon encountered a body of water. It was on the slope, and it sloped the same way, but this no longer seemed odd, because the four of them were oriented at the same angle.
"Oh, good, I"m thirsty," Dawn said. "Is it safe to drink?"
Eve lay down at the edge of the water. She touched its surface with one finger. "How come you got to be the one to blush?" she demanded suddenly. "I"m sure it was my turn."
Dawn was evidently surprised. "Well, you can have the next turn. I didn"t realize-"
"And how come you rate the bright red hair and green eyes, while I"m dull shades of black?"
"Well, we"re both blue now, but-"
"And how come you always get to speak first, and I always have to be second? Ever since we were children-"
"Eve, I don"t understand-"
"The water!" Forrest exclaimed. "It did something to her."
Dawn nodded. "Eve, what"s with the water?"
Eve concentrated. "This is the jealous sea. It makes anyone who drinks it or touches it jealous." Then she heard herself talking, and was startled. "Oh, no!"
"Oh, yes," Dawn said. "That"s why you"re suddenly jealous of me, when you never were before. That water"s no good."
"Right," Eve agreed. "Still, I don"t see why you-" Then she stifled herself, realizing what was happening.
"We had better not drink this water," Forrest decided. "We"ll walk around it. There"s bound to be other water."
"This way," Imbri said in a dreamlet, and trotted around to the side.
Soon the jealous sea gave way, and they came to another large body of blue water.
"Should I try this first?" Dawn asked.
"Oh, now you"re trying to do my work," Eve grumped. She squatted at the edge and touched the water.
Then she stood. "I feel like doing something new," she said. "Forrest, look at this." She pulled off her blue blouse. She dropped it, and it dissolved into soul substance as it left her hand. She was left wearing a blue bra that hardly seemed up to the ch.o.r.e of containing her bosom.
"That must be the Indecen Sea," Imbri said, catching on to the symptom.
"You bet it is," Eve said, pulling off her skirt and letting it dissolve similarly. She wore a blue slip that seemed hardly better than nothing.
Forrest had been slow to react, but now he turned to face away from her.
He had had enough trouble when Imbri was in girl form; the last thing he needed was trouble with an indecent princess.
"What, don"t you like me?" Eve demanded, coming up behind him. "Let"s do something really outrageous."
"Let"s go find another sea!" Dawn cried.
"Why? I like this one." Eve put her arms around Forrest from behind.
"Hey, I asked you a question, Forrest Faun."
"I think you"re beautiful," Forrest said, struggling to free himself.
But the more he struggled, the tighter she clung to him, and the more her body flattened against him. She wasn"t small, the way Imbri had been on Ptero; she was almost his own height, and almost his ma.s.s, but the distribution was way different.
"Let go of him, sister dear, or I"ll-" Dawn started, tugging at Eve.
"You"ll what, sister dear?" Eve demanded challengingly.
"I"ll jump in that water!"