Dawn and Ida emerged from the house. Dawn looked radiant. She marched right up to Forrest. "I love you as much as Eve does, now," she said, embracing him and kissing him ardently on the mouth. He realized that it must be so, for her pa.s.sion was heating him, making him desire her as much as he desired Eve. Her body was pressing him in all the places Eve"s body had, just as urgently. "So we"re even, again."
She gave him a final squeeze, and turned him loose.
He reeled, and would have fallen, had not Imbri alertly intercepted him and supported him with her solid shoulder. "We had better complete this mission soon," Imbri said in a dreamlet. "Those girls are too much for you."
True words! He put his arm across her shoulder, gradually regaining his equilibrium. "I"m just not used to this sort of thing," he said.
"But what favor did you do him?" Eve was asking Dawn.
"Sister, I can"t tell you. And I can"t tell you why I can"t tell you.
But believe me, you would do the same, in my situation."
"I don"t understand!"
"I know. I"m sorry. But so it must be, for now."
Eve looked at Ida. "So it seems it must be," Ida agreed. "And now I think you are ready to return to Pyramid and complete your mission."
"But how can she have done me a favor, and I not know it?"
Forrest asked, as perplexed as Eve.
"In time you will understand."
Forrest exchanged a glance of mottled frustration with Eve. "Don"t you hate it when someone says that?" Eve asked.
"Yes. It makes me feel like a teenager."
"Exactly," she agreed. Then she came across and kissed him on the mouth. "If Dawn can do it, so can I."
"But I didn"t get to press my bare body against him in the water," Dawn retorted.
"How do you know about that?" Eve demanded.
"When we held hands, I fathomed everything."
"Including what you"re not telling us."
"Yes," Dawn said smugly.
"It"s time to go," Forrest said, before it could erupt into a sisterly fight.
"Yes," Imbri agreed, her dreamlet figure sounding no more pleased than Forrest or Eve. "Time to go."
"Let"s hold hands," Eve suggested.
"Just to be sure no one gets lost," Dawn said.
At another time Forrest might have objected. But at the moment his main concern was that they make a safe return to Pyramid before anything else happened to confuse the issue. So he didn"t argue.
Eve took hold of his left hand, and Dawn took his right hand, and the two of them caught Imbri"s mane on either side with their other hands.
Each of the girls squeezed his fingers with knowing implication. They were even, all right-but what of him? Then all of them diluted their bodies.
"This is impressive," Ida remarked as they expanded and thinned. "I wish all of you the very best. Give my regards to Ida of Pyramid."
Then they became too diffuse to hear her. They were drifting up into the sky, which was the hole in the center of Torus. They had to move out of it, so as not to collide with the world again as they continued to expand.
The lakes, forests, fields, and mountains spread out below and around them as they went. Forrest peered at the inner side of the doughnut, until he located the Sarah Sea, with its island in the center. He hoped Ida wasn"t lonely. It would not have been a bad place to reside.
They moved well clear of Torus, growing impossibly large. Then Forrest saw a far larger shape beyond, and realized that it was Ida"s head. Ida of Pyramid. They would have some interesting things to tell her, too!
It became easier as they oriented on the larger world. They were too diffuse to continue holding hands; their substances pa.s.sed right through each other. But now there was no danger of getting lost. Still, one nebulous figure clung to his left extremity. That would be Eve. Or was it? What was he to do about her, whichever one it was? When the two girls had been equally interested, it had been awkward, and worse when Eve was more interested, but now it was worse yet. Because now he was wishing that the mission could be finished, so that he and they could do whatever they had in mind. He would have to play no favorites, but that would be a lie; Eve had become his favorite. She had aroused emotions of a scope and complexity he had not before experienced. Yet Dawn had the capacity to even it up, as her last embrace had shown. Just what had she done, to increase her emotion?
When their own monstrous bodies came into view, they separated, each descending toward his or her own. Even Eve"s empty body intrigued him now; it looked lovely in its dark perfection. He would have to dissipate that feeling, if he could.
Mare Imbri was the first to reach her body. She landed on it with her hoofs and sank in. So that was how it was done! Forrest moved his own feet toward that landing. But he hung back somewhat, wanting to make sure that the others docked successfully before he did. He didn"t know what he would do if anything went wrong, but he felt it was his responsibility.
He saw Dawn reach her body. She elected to swan-dive into it, her soul-self a.s.suming the form of the bird just before it disappeared into the flesh. Actually her whole body was condensed soul, but that didn"t seem to matter in this circ.u.mstance. Her head faced him at the last instant, and winked. What did she know?
Then Eve reached her body. She a.s.sumed the form of a perfect image of herself, only without the clothing, and sank down on her back. She glanced lingeringly at him as she disappeared, and smiled. Oh, yes, she remained aware of him!
Then it was his turn. He dropped in feet first, trusting Imbri"s technique, and felt his feet and legs encounter slow resistance. He arranged himself and lay down across his body, sinking in.
Then it became stifling. He was suffocating. He wanted to pull out, to escape, to win free, but couldn"t. The body had hold of him, and was sucking him into itself, in all its solid parts and aspects. But he reminded himself that this really was his body, in this world, and that he would like it as soon as he truly got back into it. It merely felt a bit corroded from disuse at the moment.
Then the melding was complete. He opened his eyes. Around him the others were stirring. "What an experience!" Dawn said. She looked at Forrest as if pondering experience of another kind.
"Yes indeed," Eve agreed. Then she sent a sultry glance in Forrest"s direction. "In more respects than one."
For sure.
Ida helped them reorient. "Are all of you all right?" she asked. "You were gone for several hours."
Forrest looked at the tiny Torus...o...b..ting her head. So much had happened there! "Yes, I think we are, physically," he said.
Both girls laughed. "Emotionally, we changed," Dawn said. "The two of us fell in love with him, and he became fascinated with us."
"But we learned what we need to know," Eve said. "Your persona there was very nice."
"And now we will share it with you," Forrest said. "We will tell you all about Torus."
"I"m so glad," Ida said, bringing a plate of cookies.
And for the next two hours they told her everything they could remember that they deemed important or interesting. Ida was fascinated, especially with the revised rules of services and emotions there, and with the information about the other Ida"s cone moon. "How I wish I could meet her!" she said.
"That, I fear, is impossible," Imbri said. "How could you take your moon along-when going to that moon?"
"How, indeed," Ida agreed sadly. "But this detailed knowledge of it is the next best thing. I"m glad she has a nice residence."
"She sent her regards to you," Forrest said, remembering.
"Oh! How nice."
"She"s a nice person," Dawn said.
"Just like you," Eve said.
"Oh!" Ida blushed.
Then it was time to resume their mission. "We must locate Ghina on the red face, and Jfraya on the green face," Forrest said. "With their help, we can nullify the Wizards. Then you will be free."
"That will be nice," Ida agreed. "But do be careful, because the Wizards may not take kindly to your effort."
"As long as n.o.body tells them what we are up to, we should be all right," Imbri said in a dreamlet.
"I will certainly never tell," Ida said. "Farewell, good visitors."
Dawn & Eve hugged her. Then the four of them left her blue stone house, and walked off the blue ridge to the blue lake. There Forrest took the large cross from Imbri"s pack. They cl.u.s.tered together, and shot across the water in a bundle.
They landed tumbled together on the far sh.o.r.e. Dawn was plastered across Forrest"s front, and Eve across his back, all of them on top of Imbri. But no one was hurt. He wondered to what extent the girls had arranged things that way. Did it matter?
They disentangled, and resumed their trek. The red face was in the direction they thought of as west, though such a designation was meaningless here. A straight march in that direction would get them there. Forrest invoked the blanket of obscurity so that they would not be bothered by natives.
But night was coming. They needed a place to spend the night. They were in deep woods, and weren"t sure how safe it would be, because the blanket would wear off long before the night ended. Already they heard the howling of the hunting wolf spiders. They didn"t want to blunder into a wolf web.
Dawn went from tree to tree, touching their trunks. "This is a tea tree," she said of one. "It grows all kinds of teas: Mediocri, subversi, adverse, propensi, versatili, priori, supertori, monstrosi-"
"We get the point," Eve said. "We won"t be drinking any of those.
Dawn circled around it. "And on this side it"s a Tree Tea," she announced. "When enemies meet here, they can make a peace agreement."
"There"s a house," Eve said. "Maybe we can stay there."
"How long has the blanket been invoked?" Imbri asked.
"Over an hour," Forrest said. "But what we want is friendly accommodation. So if we find that, we won"t need the blanket."
"So who inquires at that house?"
"I will. We all have our own value, so none of us are more at risk than the others."
"But we love you," Dawn said. "We don"t want anything to happen to you.
"And I don"t want anything to happen to any of you." He glanced at Imbri. "If an ogre or something answers the door, throw a bad dreamlet at him to distract him until I can get away."
The others nodded, realizing that this was probably sufficient protection.
He went up to the blue house and knocked on the door. A young woman with blue hair answered. She reminded him of someone. "h.e.l.lo," he said.
"I am Forrest Faun, from another world, and I and my friends need a place to stay the night. We wondered if you-"
"Another world?" she asked. "Do you mean Ptero?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. We are on our way to the red face, and-"
"You are welcome. We haven"t had visitors from there for a long time.
In fact, we"ve never had them. I am Ilene, and this is my brother Gerrod." She indicated the man who came up behind her. He looked familiar too.
"Don"t you want to meet my companions, to be sure-"
"Certainly. Bring them in."
Forrest turned and beckoned the others. They came to the house.
"You look familiar," Ilene said, looking at the twins.
"I am Dawn."
"I am Eve."
"We are the twin daughters of Prince Dolph and Princess Electra."
"That"s it!" Ilene cried. "You are our cousins! We are the children of Grey and Ivy.
"Oh, more cousins," Dawn said. "How nice."
"Do you have Magician caliber talents?" Eve asked.
"Of course. I control storms, and Geffod communicates with water."
"Fascinating," Dawn said. "I know about living things."
"And I know about inanimate things."
"Let"s compare notes," Ilene said.
Soon Gerrod and Eve were telling each other about all manner of aspects of a cup of water, and it was clear that their talents were genuine.
Similarly Ilene and Dawn were demonstrating storm clouds and information about living things. Then they all settled down inside, including Imbri, for a nice supper and more talking. Forrest realized that on these worlds, where the might-he"s resided, it was easy for them to accept alternate folk. Dawn & Eve knew all their cousins on Ptero, and Ilene and Gerrod knew all their cousins on Pyramid. They considered it a fair exchange of information, and no one gained or lost size. Imbri paid her way by demonstrating her ability to project dreamlets, and Forrest brought out his panpipes and played a merry melody for their hosts. So it was a good night.
In the morning, refreshed, they set off again. Ilene and Gerrod did not know what was to be found on the red face; it seemed that the folk on one face kept pretty much to their own color, and those who tried to cross over stood out like sore big toes. But Geffod gave them several packaged storms to use in case of need. Imbri accepted them, and did lose some ma.s.s, but it seemed worth it.
As they progressed, the ground tilted. It didn"t bother them, since they tilted with it, but they were aware that they were getting near the edge of the blue triangle.
When they reached it, the demarcation was striking. The border was like the ridge of a mountain range, blue on one side, red on the other.