But that complication would have to wait. Forrest faced Ida. "Eve can tell anything about anything inanimate. She will learn all about the lake, and tell me, and I will exchange that information with you. Does this seem fair?"
"Yes, remarkably fair," Ida agreed.
"Then Eve and I will go to the water and learn what we need. Meanwhile Dawn and Mare Imbri can chat with you, if you like. I"m sure there are incidental things you could exchange, keeping them in balance." Even as he spoke, he wondered why he had set it up that way. Surely he didn"t want to be alone with Eve at this time! Or did he?
"Yes, surely," Ida agreed.
So Forrest and Eve followed the path back to the water. The a.s.sorted animals of the Isle let them be, knowing that they were not hunters. Eve insisted on holding his hand again. "If I am going to be even more in love with you, I want to grab every moment I can," she explained.
"But such contact with me will only increase your desire to-to do what we should not."
"It can"t," she said dreamily.
Forrest decided not to argue, though he was not entirely at ease with this. For one thing, this was the first time he had been really alone with either girl, so the inhibition of numbers was gone. Eve was evidently working up to more than just information. And he was evidently facilitating it, though he knew he should not. The complications of relationships with nonnymphly women were both confusing and tantalizing.
They reached the water, and she knelt down, ready to stick her finger in. Then she stood. "No, I have a better notion," she said, approaching him.
"What is that?" he asked warily.
"This." She lurched suddenly, and pushed him into the water. When he tried to catch his balance, she flung her arms around him and hauled him down. They both made a great splash as they fell in.
"But there may be water monsters!" he cried, trying to scramble back out.
She just clung more tightly. "No there aren"t. Not at this beach. Now let me tell you all about it."
"But you don"t have to hold me while you tell me," he protested.
"Yes I do," she said firmly. Very firmly, for she was plastered against him, and she had dissolved all her clothing.
"You are taking advantage of the situation," he informed her. And he was letting her, he realized.
"I certainly am. This is almost as good as a love spring."
"But what"s the point? You know I"m not going to-not until the mission is done."
"I know. But you will be sorely tempted, and you will remember what I feel like, this close, and when the time comes, you will not try to find a pretext to avoid it."
She was eerily accurate. Already it took most of his willpower to maintain his nominal diffidence. "How do you know so much about me, when it"s Dawn"s talent to know all about living creatures, not Yours?"
He was trying to distract her; they had already explained about the overlapping of their talents.
"She told me."
"But doesn"t she have a-an equal interest? Why should she tell you how to-"
"When her chance comes, she"ll do the same. My chance just happened to come first. So she didn"t interfere, and I won"t interfere during her turn."
"But how does she know you won"t-"
"Our agreement is up to, but not including, the stork. We must be together for that. So I"ll give her the chance to do you an equivalent favor before then, so we"ll be even again. And we"ll both give you opportunity to do us favors, on other days, so your interest will match ours. We will keep you quite busy, for a while."
"You girls are almost frightening in your cooperation."
"Never trust a Sorceress," she agreed. "Let alone two of us."
Forrest resigned himself. These girls had his number, and knew it. He really didn"t need to do them any favors, to find them dangerously appealing. "Tell me all about this lake."
She started talking, punctuating her sentences with kisses on his ears.
It took some time.
At last they emerged from the water. Forrest was shaky, not from the information, but from Eve"s kisses. There might not be magic in them, but they nevertheless had extraordinary force. She was right: he would be dreaming of her during whatever off moments were available, and when the time came, he would not make any excuses. She had captured his desire. The irony was that his weakness of the moment gave her the pretext to put her arm around him and help support him. She hadn"t bothered to form clothing, and her touch remained electric.
"If you had been a nymph, all this would have been abated in seconds," he muttered. "With no emotional complications. Instead you have chained me."
"I know," she said smugly. "You"re not used to dealing with women with minds. We"re dangerous. We are aware of consequences, and we know how to make a temporary interest permanent." She nudged him without using an elbow. "But somehow this session hasn"t changed my feeling for you."
"It couldn"t increase what was already complete," he said glumly.
"Maybe." He decided not to inquire what she meant. She surely understood further aspects that would only alarm him worse. He had antic.i.p.ated problems with terrain, monsters, magic, and people, but never with emotions. He had hardly known what emotions were, before all this began. Now he knew that they were the most formidable of the lot.
They returned to the central plateau. Along the way Forrest recovered his steadiness, and his fur dried, and Eve shifted to dry clothing.
Their immersion in the water was not obvious. She released his hand, so that even that aspect disappeared. He was struggling to keep his face and manner straight, and was privately amazed at how readily Eve made herself look cool, as if nothing of any kind had even been thought. Obviously girls were better at this than men. Or fauns, at least.
"That was one close call," Imbri said in a dreamlet. "If she had kissed you on the mouth instead of the ears-"
Dawn also looked knowingly at them, without comment.
Forrest approached Ida. "The name of the lake is the Sarah Sea," he began. He went on to describe its depths in meticulous detail. As he spoke, he found himself becoming increasingly interested in Ida. She was an attractive woman, with a remarkable talent, and now he was in a position to know how special her moon was. Eve had tempted him wickedly, but he knew it was desire rather than love. Ida did not tempt him in that manner, but his feeling for her was becoming encompa.s.sing.
He wanted to stay with her forever, and bask in the delight of her mere presence. This, he realized, was love, an emotion he had never before experienced. It was different from desire, though there were connections between the two. Should Ida express any interest at all in desire, he realized it would spring fully formed from the broad base of the larger emotion. Fortunately she gave no such indication, though her moon angled to observe him better.
"Now it is my turn," Ida said when he finished. "You have delivered in full measure, and satisfied my lifelong curiosity. Do not be concerned about your present emotion; it will shortly pa.s.s. Here is the information you need. You have to talk to the margins, and explain to them that they have been deceived. That they are not giving favors, they are stealing them, and will be diminished thereby."
"Margins?" Forrest asked. "The lines?"
"The creatures who generate the lines," Ida said. "They are kept in the cellars, and not told much of anything that is true."
A bulb flashed over Forrest"s head. "So if they learn the truth, they"ll stop generating the lines, and the power of the Wizards will collapse!
Ida smiled. "I"m glad that this information is useful to you."
"It certainly is!"
"But how can we get into the castles, to tell the margins?" Imbri asked.
Forrest relayed the question.
"You have merely to locate Ghina, whose talent is to put people to sleep," Ida said. "She is somewhere on Pyramid"s red face, and will help if you ask her. Also Jfraya, whose talent is to draw a door that opens.
"But how do we find Gina and Jeffrey?"
"Ghina, the daughter of Graeboe Giant and Gloha Goblin-Harpy, I believe.
A large invisible winged goblin girl. And Jfraya, of uncertain origin, on Pyramid"s green face. I fear you will have to accept some favors there, and be accordingly diminished."
"I can do that," Imbri said.
"So we have it," Forrest said. "Thank you so much."
"No thanks necessary; it is a fair exchange."
Then he realized something. "My emotion-it has faded. I don"t love you any more. Not that you are unworthy. It"s just that-"
"Yes. It abated when I returned the favor. But I trust you can appreciate why I demurred, before."
"Yes! It"s a great emotion, but it must be invoked suitably."
"That is correct. I am glad we were able to arrange our exchange of information, for we both profit handsomely thereby."
"So am I." he said, much relieved. If only Eve could be similarly turned off. But he knew of no favor he could do her at the moment.
"Now we must return to Pyramid. Do you have any objection if we go directly from here?"
"None. I have not before observed travel between worlds. It should be interesting."
"Maybe so." He looked at the others. "Are we ready?"
"No," Dawn said. "I haven"t had the chance to do you a favor to match Eve"s."
"Better yet," Forrest suggested, "why don"t I do Eve an equivalent favor, so that her emotion abates? I can"t think of one, but maybe you can."
"Maybe I can," Dawn said.
"Nuh-uh!" Eve protested. "I like it this way."
"But we have to be even," Dawn said.
"How long has it been since Eve did her favor for Forrest?" Ida asked.
"An hour," Dawn said.
"Then it"s too late. Favors have to be exchanged soon, before the emotion sets in place."
"Then I"ll just have to do Forrest some favor," Dawn said. "Forrest, what do you really, truly, most want to know about some living thing?"
"Where to find a faun for my neighboring tree. That"s my whole mission here."
"But I have to touch a living thing to know about it. I can"t find your faun from a distance, unless I can touch someone who knows where he is."
"I wish you could do me that favor," Forrest said. "But it is evident that you can"t."
"Maybe one of us knows," Dawn said. "Without knowing she knows, I mean.
So I could find out."
"I do not," Ida said. "I would have to query Cone again, and that would mean-"
"Don"t do that!" Forrest said. "It"s Dawn"s favor I must have."
Ida smiled. "I understand."
"Let"s hold hands," Dawn said desperately. "If the information is among us, I can get it."
"I can"t hold hands," Imbri said in a dreamlet.
"But you can touch us," Eve pointed out.
So they formed another circle, with the two girls holding Forrest"s hands, and touching Imbri on the other side. There was a pause.
"There is something," Dawn said. "Not the faun. Something, something better, I think. Oh!" She let go.
"What happened?" Eve asked. "Is something wrong?"
Dawn looked awed. "I don"t think so. But I don"t know what to do. It"s all-all mixed up."
Forrest was getting impatient. "Do you have the answer or don"t you?"
Dawn turned to Ida. "Aunt Ida-where I come from, that"s what you are-you always had good advice for us. I really need it now. Is there any way-without complicating things-"
Ida nodded. "There may be, dear. If you care to tell me what is on your mind, I would be free to offer an opinion, which you would be free to ignore. So there would be no actual service. Would that do?"
"Yes!"
"Then we shall do that. Let"s take a little walk into my house."
The two went into the house. The remaining three looped a glance around. "What do you think she saw?" Eve asked.
"It must have been something that one of us knows, or maybe has seen and not realized its significance," Imbri said.
"She knows just about everything I know," Eve said. "So I don"t think it"s me."
"I have seen too many things to remember," Imbri said. "In the course of my delivery of bad dreams. So one of them could relate. But why wouldn"t she tell us, or at least Forrest?"
"All I know I learned in the vicinity of my tree," Forrest said. "This adventure has shown me more new things than I ever saw before. So unless I saw a faun in pa.s.sing and didn"t realize it-and why wouldn"t Dawn tell me that?"
"She said it wasn"t a faun, but maybe better," Eve said. "But that still doesn"t explain why she"s so confused."