"Then they could be useful," Forrest said, relieved. The function of Pyramid crosses was different from Ptero crosses.
"Indeed. They are put out here for anyone to take and use. But when one is used, their maker gains the benefit of a given favor, and the one who uses them loses ma.s.s. So we don"t want to take too many."
"Can one cross enable more than one person to cross something?"
"A big one can. A small one is limited both in person and distance.
Four small ones would enable four people to cross one mountain, while one big one might enable all four people to cross a whole range of mountains. But the big one will exact a greater amount of ma.s.s, so we don"t want to use any of them more than we need to."
"Suppose we take several crosses, but don"t use them?"
"Then there is no price. It doesn"t matter where the crosses are, only how they are used."
"Then we should take a fair collection of them, and not use them unless we have to," he decided.
"How intelligent," Eve said.
"Are you trying to tease me again?"
"No, just to remind you."
He walked among the crosses. That was when he discovered that he was still holding Dawn"s hand. She had not reminded him. He let go, embarra.s.sed, and heard her obscure chuckle. "I think we should each carry two small ones and one big one. Can we do that? I mean, I have room in my knapsack, but do the rest of you have a way to carry things?"
"Sure," Dawn said. "In our purses."
"And I have a pack," Imbri said.
Forrest leaned down to take a cross, but now Eve"s hand stayed him. "I wouldn"t," she murmured.
"Why not?"
"Because that particular one is made of petrified wood."
Forrest froze. Then he moved his hand very slowly down, barely touching the cross. Fear coursed through him. It was true; this cross made anyone who touched it terrified.
"But I might be able to use this too," he said. "If I got caught by a monster I couldn"t escape."
"But how can you take it with you, if it frightens you?" Imbri asked.
"It shouldn"t frighten me once I"m not directly touching it." He reached into his knapsack and pulled out a handkerchief. He wrapped this around the cross so that he could pick it up without touching it. The handkerchief was thin, so his fright was there, but he was able to handle the cross until it dropped into his knapsack.
"That was a brave thing to do," Dawn said, taking his hand again.
"No it wasn"t. I was scared, but I knew there was no danger."
"It"s not handling danger, but handling fear that makes a person brave, isn"t it?"
Forrest hadn"t thought of it that way. "Maybe. But it had to be done, if I wanted that cross."
They each took two small crosses, which disappeared into their various packs and purses without trouble. But the large crosses were too big to fit. Finally Eve found one folding cross, and they fit that into Imbri"s pack, which was larger than the others. That would have to do.
Now the wind, having dallied all this time, amusing itself by whirling up dry blue leaves and gra.s.s and making funnel-shapes of them, resumed its forward progress. They followed. The blanket of obscurity was fading, so that the girls remained fairly clear.
The path led past several huge blue bee hives. They had been constructed in the shape of wooden boats with closed tops, and these were arranged in a giant semi-circle. The bees were very large, and they were flying in with blue books.
Forrest paused to take in this scene. "I never knew that bees collected books," he said, surprised.
Eve went up cautiously to touch one of the fancy hives. It seemed that enough of the blanket of obscurity remained on her to keep the bees from being disturbed. Then she laughed. "These are Ark-hives," she explained. "Where the bees store books, so they won"t be lost. That must be why these bees are so large; they are constantly doing good deeds for this region, by saving all these good references."
They went on, hurrying to catch up with the gust. But now they came to a wide blue lake, and the wind was moving right across it, toward a blue island.
Forrest considered the water. "Do you suppose we could swim?"
Eve touched the surface with a finger. "I think not. This water contains all manner of horrible blue monsters."
"Then this must be what we have the crosses for. We had better each use one small one, saving the other for the return trip."
They dug out their small crosses and held them up. "Uh, how do they work?" Forrest asked, belatedly.
"Just describe where you wish to cross, and say "invoke," " Eve said.
"To that island," Forrest said, looking at it. "Invoke."
Suddenly he was there, and the cross was gone. He felt lighter, though that might have been his imagination. He turned to look back-and the others arrived. They made streaks as they crossed the water in half an instant.
"That was fun," Dawn said.
"But we don"t want to do it too many times," Eve said.
The wind was waiting for them. They followed it along a winding path to a blue ridge of mountains. On the ridge was a house built of blue stone. As they approached it, a woman emerged. "Aunt Ida!" Dawn cried, going up to hug her.
"You haven"t changed at all," Eve said, doing the same.
Ida returned their hugs, then inquired, "You seem like such fine girls. Do I know you?"
Forrest approached. "I must explain. We are from the world of-of Ptero.
Do you understand?"
"Oh, my, yes! But I have never had visitors from there before. How nice."
"I am Forrest Faun, and this is Mare Imbrium, and these are Dawn & Eve, the daughters of Prince Dolph and Electra."
"I am so glad to meet you."
"Do you have nieces here?" Dawn asked.
"I don"t think I do. But this is not the same world as Ptero."
"Yes," Eve said. "We have been trying to get used to its rules.
We have come to stop its Wizards from hurting our people on Ptero."
"Oh, are they doing that? I didn"t know."
"I"m afraid they are," Forrest said. "We hoped that you would know how to stop them."
Ida shook her head. This caused her moon to wobble and careen into view. Apparently it had been hiding behind her head until now.
"Look at that!" Dawn exclaimed.
"A doughnut!" Eve said.
The moon zipped back into hiding.
"Please don"t use that word," Ida said. "The correct term is Torus."
"Oh, we"re sorry," Dawn said, blushing a modest blue.
"Extremely sorry," Eve agreed, blushing an immodest blue. "We"re so ignorant."
Forrest knew that this was at least in part an act, similar to their flirtation with him, but it was nevertheless impressive. The twins were very good at manners.
"Well, I suppose you couldn"t know," Ida said. "Being from another world."
"Yes, but we want so much to learn," Dawn said.
"And never to make the same mistake again," Eve said.
Ida glanced at Forrest in a way that indicated that she was not being much fooled. "At any rate, I was saying to my regret that I don"t know the answer to your problem. The Blue Wizard has confined me to this island, to keep me, as he puts it, out of mischief. I am surprised that you were able to locate me so readily."
"We asked around," Forrest said. "We thought that since you have the Sorceress talent of the Idea, you might have an idea about how we might proceed."
"Why yes, of course."
"You mean you do know how to stop the Wizards?"
"No. But I do know how you should proceed."
They looked at her blankly.
"You see," Ida explained, "I know where the answer is to be found. I don"t have it, because I can"t go there." Her eyes fixed momentarily on her moon.
Oh, no! "On Torus?" Forrest asked weakly.
"Yes. I"m sure that the Ida who lives there has the answer. That"s why the Wizard confined me: to be sure that no one had access to my moon.
And no creature of this world is able to come here; a powerful spell repels them. But perhaps he didn"t reckon on visitors from another world."
It was beginning to make sense. "We are certainly from other worlds," Forrest said. "The girls are from Ptero, but Imbri and I derive originally from Xanth."
"Xanth? What realm is that?"
Forrest exchanged half a glance with Imbri. Ida didn"t know about Xanth? "It is a larger land," Imbri said in a dreamlet. "On it is Princess Ida, about whose head Ptero orbits."
"Fascinating! And what larger land does Xanth orbit on?"
"Larger land?" Forrest asked blankly.
"Since Pyramid orbits the Ida on Ptero, and Ptero orbits the Ida on Xanth, what land"s Ida does Xanth orbit?"
Forrest found his jaw hanging as low as Imbri"s jaw, which was surprising, because her mare"s mouth was larger than his. "Why, we don"t know," he said.
Ida smiled. "Maybe after your mission here is done, you can descend to that world and find out. I wonder whether it"s an infinite progression?"
"I wonder too," Imbri said.
"But now you will want to visit Torus," Ida said. "You will have to leave much of yourselves here, however. Fortunately I have room in my house. But I am obliged by our nature to take some of your ma.s.s for the favor of facilitating your trip. Unless you can do me a return service."
"We hope to free you from this island, and free Pyramid from the tyranny of the Wizards," Dawn said.
Ida shook her head. "These are hopes rather than realities."
"We can tell you all about what we find on Torus," Eve said. "So that you will know it as well as if you had been there yourself."
Ida smiled. "Now that is a service no one else can do me, that I would very much value. So though I may gain some of your ma.s.ses when you go, you won"t miss it because your bodies will be asleep, here. And you will recover it when you tell me about Torus. Do come this way."
She led them into her blue stone house, which was neatly kept. There were two beds there, and a couch. The girls lay on the beds, and Forrest took the couch, and Imbri lay comfortably on the floor. Then Ida sat between them, in her chair.
Forrest brought out his bottle. He gave each girl a sniff, and lay back on the couch and sniffed it himself One by one they dropped into unconsciousness, as their soul fragments drew free.
The process was becoming more familiar with experience. This was the third time for Forrest and Imbri, and the second time for the girls.
Efficiently they waited up, forming into floating shapes, making eyeb.a.l.l.s and ears and mouths. Soon they looked reasonably like themselves. Then they flew toward Torus, condensing as they moved.
The world loomed larger, its doughnut shape becoming dramatic.
Where should they land on it?
Imbri seemed to know, so they followed her horse form. She headed first for the center of the hole, then to the inner surface. The world was variegated, which was a relief; that meant that they would not be confined to shades of a single color.
"I am orienting on Ida"s ident.i.ty," Imbri said in a dreamlet. "It is an ability of night mares, to locate the sleepers who need their dreams.
It"s not very accurate when folk are awake, so it didn"t help on Pyramid, but I think we"ll be reasonably close to her when we land."
They were drifting toward a forest. In the forest was a glade, and in the center of the glade was a single large tree. That did seem like the best place to land, as their navigation was a bit unsteady and a clear spot was best.