They looked at Noe. Noe neighed.
Everyone laughed. But Jess caught Santo’s eye in passing, and felt a chill. He knew what could happen, and hated it. So, actually, did Jess. But as Nia had remarked privately before, they were not playing widdly tinks.
They went topside. Win, with Aria, took the tiller. The princess was surely intrigued. Jess knew that Win was letting her try steering the craft, because it was a bit wobbly. Meanwhile Noe was getting acquainted with the night mare. She did change forms briefly, verifying that she could do it.
They came near the Void. Beyond it was where Astrid Basilisk was staying at present; all four siblings were able to orient on her location. It seemed that Astrid preferred privacy, and behind the Void pretty much guaranteed that. They anchored Fibot invisibly at an enchanted rest stop, disembarked as a group except for Tata and the peeve with the keys, and walked on.
The path here was not enchanted, mainly because there were very few calls for anyone to come this way. At the closest point to the Void, Jess raised her hands in a Halt motion. She beckoned Ula, who came to her, taking her hand. That provided contact with Princess Kadence, so that the others could take Jess seriously.
“Two things to remind all of us of,” Jess said. “That shiny flicker almost within touching distance is the perimeter of the Void. Do not touch it! Nothing that passes across that invisible wall can return this way. Do not play any jump across, jump back games; crossing is strictly one way.” She glared around at the children.
“We won’t,” Myst said. “We know how it is.”
“The other thing is to all of us who have not before encountered Astrid Basilisk-Cacatrice, whom we are going to see and add to our party. By all accounts she is a very nice person. But her direct glance kills any folk who meet it, which is why she normally wears a veil or dark glasses, or both. Apart from that, she is dangerous; her very nearness is poisonous. We think of it as an intoxicating perfume, but too much of it can be lethal. So we must all treat her with extreme care. We are picking her up so that she can face down Ragna Roc in the future. If he tries to delete her, he must look at her, and when he does he will die. He will know that, so we expect him to back off and yield to our demands that he un-delete all his victims and accept permanent exile from Xanth proper. However, it is important that we catch him by surprise, so that he can’t act to prevent us, especially Astrid, from getting close to him. Even a cried out warning from a distance could alert him and ruin our mission. So I want no one to speak out of turn until the deed is done.”
Jess paused, looking around again. “Are we all clear on that?”
Myst raised her hand. “I think I have a question, but it’s embarrassing. Can I whisper it to you?”
“Whisper it,” Jess agreed graciously.
Myst came up to her, and whispered in her ear. “The Sea Hag is here. I can smell her. But she can’t be.”
“Where?” Jess whispered back.
The girl pointed silently to Noe.
Jess looked past her to Nia, who gravely nodded. She sensed the Hag, too.
“She can’t take Noe over,” Jess whispered. “But she can take Mare Imbri. That’s why you’re confused.”
“Oh.”
“Do not tell anyone else. This is where we want the Hag. Soon we will be rid of her. Trust me.” Jess kissed the child’s ear.
“Oh.” Myst still seemed confused, but she walked away. She did trust Jess, who had been like another mother figure to her, especially during their planetary travels.
Jess turned back to the others. “Now let’s all admire the fringe of the Void, which we may never see again. Do not touch it!”
They all stepped up to face the invisible boundary, within touching distance. “Noe,” Jess said sternly. “Throw Imbri into the Void.”
Noe’s head turned to face her. “What?”
“Now,” Jess said. “Hurl her spirit forward. You can do it.”
“Do it,” Santo said, as sternly. “Now.”
“Now,” Nia echoed.
Amazed and chagrined, Noe made a kind of throwing gesture with her hands. But what counted was her spiritual effort: ejecting the spirit of the visiting mare. She might have questioned Jess, or not taken her seriously, and might have hesitated for Nia, but she truly trusted Santo.
Jess held her breath. Had it worked?
Then Noe spoke. “She’s gone. They’re both gone.”
Jess relaxed. “Thank you, Noe. You have just done Xanth a remarkable service. When Imbri entered the Void, the Hag was carried along with her, as she did not have time to disengage. That was why it had to be a surprise, to catch her off guard.”
“But Imbri! I didn’t want her to go!” Noe turned to Santo, who held her close as her tears flowed.
“She will be all right,” Jess said.
“What just happened here?” Magnus asked. “Is Mare Imbri lost in the Void?”
“Let’s step back from the Void, and I will explain,” Jess said, still holding Win’s hand.
They all stepped back. Noe was not the only one looking at Jess with borderline horror.
“We have just sprung a very nasty trap on the Sea Hag,” Jess explained. “She was following us, mainly me; I could smell her presence, spiritually, as could Win and Nia. Noe too, but she was unable to speak of it. The Hag was going to come with us to the future, then zip across to Em Pathy or some other minion and give warning to Ragna Roc about our identity and mission. He couldn’t delete us, but he could stop us if he had any time at all to prepare. His minions could grab us and throw us into a cell, for example. Surprise is critical, and the Hag was going to abolish it, and thus save Ragna. We could not afford that.”
“We could not,” Santo agreed grimly.
“So I set a trap for her,” Jess continued. “First, I explained to the rest of you, knowing she was listening, about Astrid Basilisk. The Hag knew that the minions could not stop Astrid, even with some warning; she could kill them all as fast as she looked around, and then she could kill Ragna Roc himself. There’s hardly anything more deadly than a basilisk with a purpose. So the Hag knew she had to act immediately. She had to take over someone in our party, so she could stop the nasty surprise. But there was no one suitable for her to take over; we had covered almost everyone. So she took the only one she could: Mare Imbri, locking on to her spirit. That gave her access to a host, Noe, even if she couldn’t control the host directly. That was a lot better for her than nothing. But she didn’t want the rest of us to know, so she acted only to stifle Noe’s voice, hoping we would not notice that Noe was acting like a zombie. But then we told Noe to throw Imbri into the Void, and she did. Since the Hag was infusing the mare, she could not escape on such short notice. They both entered the Void, and the Hag will not emerge; we have at last eliminated her from the scene.”
“But Imbri!” Noe cried. “How could we sacrifice her? She didn’t deserve that.”
“Ah, yes, Mare Imbri,” Jess said. “She has a history. When she killed the Horseman and threw his deadly amulet into the Void, she got caught herself and lost her body. But by then she had a soul, and souls, being immaterial, are not subject to the Void. She was not trapped there before, and is not now. She has returned to her tree.”
“But the Sea Hag is a soul,” Major said. “So she’s not trapped, either.”
“Oh, but she is,” Jess said. “I did a bit of spot research on this, and learned that while a soul can not be trapped, neither can it escape unless it has somewhere to go. It is like being lost in a fog; you could get out of it, but you can’t see the path, so you flounder, lost. Imbri had somewhere to go, before; actually she had half a soul, and Chem Centaur had the other half. The half soul returned to Chem, who freed it to be with Imbri, who became a day mare. It’s a whole separate story. The point is, that half soul was tethered to its other half, so it had a line to follow out of the Void. I
mbri was well respected and liked in Xanth. This time Imbri has her tree, and her soul knows the way back to it. She can rejoin us, if she chooses. The Hag is another matter; no one wants her in Xanth. She has no line out.”
“So Imbri is all right?” Noe asked, starting to be relieved.
“Yes. I knew she would be. But I couldn’t tell the rest of you, lest the Hag overhear and know about the trap.”
“I’ll go back and see if she wants to rejoin us,” Dolph said. “After this, she might not want to.”
“Explain it to her,” Nia said. “She certainly has a right to be angry about being used. But we had to get rid of the Hag. Maybe she’ll understand.”
“I will. Back soon.” Dolph become the roc bird, and took off.
Noe, now recovered from her tears, shook her head. “I hope we never have to do anything like that again, and not just because I hated the closeness of the Hag.”
“We understand,” Santo said. “I knew about it, and I hated it too, but saw no feasible alternative.”
“And I knew,” Nia said. “Ditto.”
“But we are at last rid of the Hag,” Kadence said. “Which I think is something the prior alternate tracks did not accomplish.”
They resumed their walk along the path. Before long the roc returned, landing on the path ahead of them. It transformed to Dolph. “I explained. She understands. She knew we had to stop the Hag.”
Noe ran up. “I’m so sorry, Imbri!” she cried. “I hated doing it! Will you take me back?”
There was a pause and a half. Then a dreamlet picture formed over Noe’s head, showing the mare in human lady form. IT’S ALL RIGHT, her speech balloon printed. IT HAD TO BE DONE. I KNOW OF THE SEA HAG OF OLD. SHE’S NO GOOD.
Noe clapped her hands in a flash of joy. “I’m so glad!”
“It should be safe for Aria and Imbri to switch back to their original hosts now,” Jess said. “Their exchange was for a passing purpose.”
Win and Noe approached each other and touched hands. Then Noe’s expression changed. “Done,” Aria said. “I do prefer Noe, no offense to Win; she’s more familiar.”
A speech balloon appeared over Win’s head. DITTO.
They moved on. Soon they came to a cute little house surrounded by a very pretty flower garden. A woman was tending to the flowers, each of which had its own little bed, complete with miniature blanket and pillow. They were obviously well cared for, and were thriving.
The four siblings charged her. Myst collided with her so hard it knocked off her dark glasses. Santo, averting his gaze, picked them up and handed them back to her. “Oh, my dears,” she said, her eye covers restored. “Whatever brings you here?”
“It’s a whole big story,” Santo said. “But the essence is, we want you to come with us.” Then, belatedly: “Folks, this is Astrid.”
There followed more formal introductions, and an explanation why Jess was holding Ula’s hand: to be taken seriously. Meanwhile a boy emerged from the house, and was promptly mobbed by the siblings. “Firenze!” Myst cried, not succeeding in knocking him down. It turned out that he was the fifth sibling, who had been adopted by Astrid herself. He was fourteen, on the verge of manhood, ordinary except for a somewhat ruddy complexion.
“And we’re adding a couple more siblings” Myst said. “Noe and Ula.” She gestured to them.
“Well, hello, girls,” Firenze said, clearly impressed. They were ages eleven and ten respectively, the right ages for gender interest to start. Especially Noe, who was already pretty. Not the prettiest, but pretty enough.
Noe saw his glance, and understood it perfectly. “I’m Santo’s girlfriend.”
“But—”
“She understands,” Santo said.
Firenze nodded, understanding in turn. “Siblings it is.”
They settled into their necessary discussion. Astrid seemed like a perfectly normal and caring housewife, and soon Jess was comfortable with her nature. “So that’s why we need you,” Santo concluded.
“Of course I’ll come,” Astrid agreed. “I don’t like the idea of Ragna Roc taking over Xanth, either.” She glanced at her son, through the dark glasses. “But I think you need to stay home, Firenze.”
The boy laughed. “Because I’m a hothead,” he explained to the others.
“Because someone needs to tend the flowers while your father is busy,” Astrid gently corrected him. “While I am away.”
“That too,” he agreed.
“I’m not sure I understand,” Jess said carefully. “You have a short temper?”
Myst laughed. “Show her, Firenze. Pretend someone’s beating me up.”
The boy glowered. His complexion intensified, becoming downright fiery. In fact his head seemed about to burst into flames.
“I get it,” Jess said quickly. “A literal hothead.”
Astrid looked at the sky, which was beginning to think about darkening. “We’ll go tomorrow.”
No one argued. It had been a tiring day.
Chapter 15
Showdown
After dinner the siblings, now including Noe and Ula, formed a group, talking animatedly with each other. Ula, buttressed by Kadence, seemed to be making an impression on Firenze. The men, Dell, Magnus, Dolph, and Astrid’s husband Art, got together to chat about man things. That left the women, Nia, Jess, and Astrid, in their own group. Astrid sat a little apart, downwind, so that the breeze carried away her poisonous perfume without affecting the others.
“I see you like flowers,” Jess said.
“She says—” Nia began.
“And she’s not joking,” Astrid said. “I think I can understand you, Jess. I have a similar problem, in a manner, being unable to look any friend in the face. I have learned to make allowances.”
That made it easier. Neither woman was what she seemed. Nia was two generations older in mind, and Astrid was not even human. Which might explain the inclusion of Squid among the siblings: they knew better than to judge by species.
“Yes, I like flowers,” Astrid continued. “I am hoping to get some magic roses from Rose of Roogna to add to my garden.”
Jess was electrified. “Magic roses!”
The dark glasses glanced at her. “You also have an interest?”
“Not as a gardener. But when Rose gave me a brown rose, it—” She broke off. “But that’s another matter.”
“The brown ones nullify magic,”Astrid said. “If I hold one, I don’t kill others with my glance. That has its appeal, at times.”
She did understand. “It enabled Magnus to take me seriously at night, in the bedroom. I was more than willing. We—we had quite a night of it, until the rose faded.”
“I can imagine.”
“But I think it is not the answer, for me,” Jess said. “Because I need my curse for my Atrocia show, and I don’t want to impress any man but Magnus. But if I had a rose for the private nights . . .”
“It’s an incomplete answer,” Astrid said. “As it would have been for me. In my case, I found a man who is immune to my nature. I loved being able to meet his gaze without killing him. To clasp him without poisoning him with my ambiance. To be safely passionate.”
Ah, envy! “But if there were such a man for me,” Jess said, “I wouldn’t want him. I love only Magnus.” In fact she had been there, done that, with Ira.
“I do see the problem,” Astrid said.
“Magnus believes he has an answer,” Nia said. “But he won’t say what it is.”
“He’s afraid it won’t work,” Jess said.
“Maybe after the mission,” Astrid said. “If it doesn’t work, then maybe you can take up rose gardening.”
Jess sighed. “Tomorrow, the Timeline. According to Tata, the Obelisk moves every so often, to maintain its privacy. Now it seems it is behind the Void.”
“As good
a place as any,” Astrid said. “This is a private region.”
“I dread it. Not because of the time travel, but because if my theory of paradox immunity is wrong, we are going into destruction.”
“It makes sense to me,” Astrid said. “But of course I’m not a theologian.”
Jess let the matter drop, not wanting to reveal how concerned she was. She was putting not only herself at risk, but the entire party. Ragna Roc would have no mercy if that protection turned out to be false.
“When we go there,” Nia said. “Have you considered Em Pathy?
“Empathy?” Jess asked blankly.
“It’s a name. Em Pathy. Ragna Roc’s chief minion. Without her he could not govern effectively, if at all.”
“Oh, her,” Jess said, orienting on it as a name instead of a quality. But she was cautious, preferring to know what the others knew of that woman. “I know he has a human servant he has promised will be Queen of Xanth. Who cares about her?”
“We do,” Nia said evenly. “Em Pathy is possibly the most dangerous enemy we face. Her touch can completely transform a person’s emotion, converting an enemy to a friend, or vice versa. She uses it to win fanatic followers for Ragna Roc. We had a brush with her when Ragna wanted to take over Fibot; it was an uncomfortably close call. You have been concerned about the Sea Hag, yes; now you must be similarly concerned about Em Pathy.”
Jess felt a chill. “How did you escape her?”
“She’s not a Sorceress. She is limited to one person at a time. She needed help, dealing with us, and had it, but the other person suffered an attack of conscience. So we escaped.” Nia fixed Jess with a look worthy of a basilisk. “We must be prepared to deal with Em Pathy, lest we lose everything.”
“You’re not looking at me,” Astrid said. “I know pointed evasion when I see it. You know I can kill that woman with a glance before she gets close enough to touch me or anyone else.”
Nia nodded. “Are you prepared to do that? You do need to know how seriously we take this mission.”
“I am prepared to give her fair warning,” Astrid said. “If she does not heed it, then she will bring the consequence on herself.”
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