“But—”
She stepped into him and kissed him. That shut him up. Even as a child she had hold of his heart. Maybe it wasn’t as serious for her, but what could he do except let it run its course? The future was murky, but this was the here and now.
She joined him on his bed, and held his hand as they slept. That did indeed give him sweet dreams.
Chapter 8
Aether Oar
In the morning they resumed their journey. “We’ll reach the land bridge this afternoon,” Ion said. “Then we’ll cross to the Sometimes Isles.”
“A land bridge?” Squid asked. “I never heard of this.”
“Of course you haven’t. It’s surrounded by Lethe water, and the mist rising from the water has the same effect. I’m the only one who remembers it.”
Because he was immune to the water of forgetfulness, Squid realized. That was why he knew a route that no others did.
But Laurelai had another question. “How can any bridge cross to an island that is there only some of the time?”
Ion shrugged. “Magic. It connects to whatever island is there at the time. The islands change, but once we’re in the Sometime realm it will be just a matter of finding the right one.”
“Sometimes it takes us a while to locate Adamant Isle, because it has moved farther away,” Hilda said. “But it’s all right because we like traveling.”
Considering how well they were treated at Portal Village, Squid could understand. But he had another question. “We assume that Caprice Castle is on a Sometime Island. But we have no idea which one.”
“Maybe I have an idea,” Ion said.
“What is it?”
“I will trade it for a kiss.”
“Are you joking?”
“You kids still don’t get it,” Hilda said. “When you roam, do as the roamers do. Just about everyone along this trail is reversed. They learn to enjoy its special features. Ion is now a girl. You’re a boy. Kiss her.”
Squid stood still, uncertain how to react.
“You kissed Laurelai, and liked it,” Hilda said. “You can kiss Ion too. And I can kiss Laurelai, if she’ll let me.”
Laurelai smiled. “Why not?” She went to Hilda and kissed him. Hilda looked surprised, but impressed.
Squid realized that he was making an issue of something that could probably be ignored. They were both changed, but still of opposite genders. He went to Ion and kissed her. To his surprise, she kissed him back.
Hilda clapped his hands. “I win! He did it.”
“This was a child’s game?” Laurelai asked, frowning.
“A bet. Ion thought Squid wouldn’t kiss anyone but you.”
Laurelai nodded thoughtfully. “Or that no boy would kiss a crippled girl?”
Squid saw that there was a tear at Ion’s eye. The child of nine was a Magician or Sorceress, as the case might be, and a prince or princess, but was lonely. That was a condition Squid understood all too well. “Ion, I’m sorry,” he said. “I was acting on a dare. I wasn’t trying to tease you. I didn’t think of your feelings.”
“It’s all right,” Ion said. “No girl kisses me when I’m a boy, either.”
But Squid remembered a similar dialogue between the siblings. “When I’m a girl again, and you’re a boy, I’ll kiss you again. In public, if you want. That’s a promise.”
Ion smiled. “I appreciate the thought. I guess you do understand.”
They resumed their trek. In due course they came to the end of the trail. Beyond it was a swamp with an island a few yards in.
“Don’t touch that muck, even with a toe,” Hilda warned. “It’s suffused with the water of forgetfulness.”
Laurelai looked around. “This is it? It certainly doesn’t look like much.”
“Yes,” Hilda agreed. “That’s the way some really important things are.”
Squid felt a chill. S/he had been called the most important person extant, but was really just an incidental character. That was indeed the way it could sometimes be.
“The easiest way to handle this is for us just to wade through,” Hilda continued. “But only when we’re touching Ion, and she’s nullifying the Lethe. It will be the same when we cross the causeway. It’s why we can use this route and nobody else can. Mom knows it’s safe for us, or she wouldn’t let us do it.”
“That does make sense,” Squid agreed. “Usually when I encounter swamp or open water I revert to my natural state and splash on through, but Lethe is something else.”
“You bet,” Hilda agreed. “You won’t want to swim between the islands either, because there are allegations galore just waiting to chomp you.”
Squid smiled. “I can handle allegations.”
“But the rest of us can’t,” Laurelai said.
“I’ll find a form that can help us all.”
They clustered around Ion and held on to her arms, or in the case of Hilda, one of his feet, as it was more accessible. They forged across, and the Lethe did not affect them.
“The nullification remains as long as you don’t touch any new water,” Hilda said as they strode on to the land of the island.
They stood on the small bit of land. “Now what?” Squid asked.
“We go to the far side.”
They walked to the other side. There was the causeway, or land bridge, cutting straight across the open water to another island.
“It is safe to cross this alone,” Hilda said, setting out.
They followed. Squid saw a kind of shimmer halfway across, and suspected that that was the boundary between Now and Sometime. Indeed, they could never have made it without the guidance and protection of the twins.
They arrived at the next island. This one was made of candy, but Squid was not inclined to eat any of it. It was too close to the Lethe area.
On its far side was more open water, this time with no causeway. They were on their own. “How do you usually cross?” Squid asked.
“There are ways. Ion floats across, of course: that’s one advantage of not being able to walk. I usually sew a small boat that is impervious to predator teeth, and Ion pulls me along by a cord. It’s slow, both the sewing and the pulling, but we get there eventually. Or I can sew a swimsuit that completely encloses my body and smells of stink horn. If that isn’t enough, Ion opens a bottle of something worse.”
Squid hardly cared to imagine what could be worse. “Let me see what I can do.” He delved into his memory of oddities, and came up with something he had never tried before because it would have been imitation, not real. But now might be different. “An Aether Oarfish.”
“Either Or Fish?” Hilda asked.
“Aether Oar. Tata Dogfish researched it for me once. As in the old magic aether the Mundanes once had, that filled empty space, before they replaced it with the modern Higgs Field that fills in substance. Plus the oar paddle. It’s a long ribbon-like fish with something else. It either stays put, or it jumps to where it’s looking. Either here or there. Now I won’t be able to talk to you in that form, but I will understand you when you talk. But first I have to verify whether I will be real or fake.”
“You’re real,” Hilda said.
“He means when he changes,” Laurelai explained. “He used to fake it, merely looking like whatever it was, but now he can actually become it. Such as a real man.”
Hilda remained perplexed. “He sure looks like a real man now.”
“And kisses like one,” Ion added.
“Yes. But it used to be a clever imitation. Now he’s actually human, instead of being a masked cuttlefish.”
“So maybe now he can be a real Either Orfish?”
“Oarfish. That is the hope.”
Squid changed, becoming a flat thin fish about ten paces long. He looked at the island across the water. He focused.
And he was there. He loop
ed his head back and looked behind. There was the other island, with three children gazing in his direction. It had worked! He was a real aether oarfish, who could make the either/or choices. Great!
He jumped back, and changed back to boy form. Unfortunately he had lost his clothing when he changed and was now naked.
Laurelai quickly wrapped his shirt around him like a towel. “You seem to be a success.”
“Uh, yes. Uh, thanks.”
“We’re close enough now to be like siblings, or a couple. We don’t freak each other out, and we see to each other’s needs. You’d do the same for me.”
“Uh, yes.” For the rest of his life, if she let him. “Now where do we want to go? If I can see it, I can jump to it, and I think if the rest of you are touching me, I can take you along. But you’ll have to tell me where.”
“We don’t know,” Hilda said. “The Sometime Islands change position somewhat randomly; we’re never sure which one will be next. So we just hop along until we recognize Adamant, and then we’re there. But you’re not looking for that, unless that’s where Caprice Castle went.”
“And we don’t know where Caprice is,” Laurelai said. “But we’ll recognize it if we see it, and it should show up well enough on one of these small islands, because of its high turrets. So random searching should do it, in time.”
That gave Squid a thought. “I guess you two just want to go home. We can help you get there, then go on by ourselves to locate Caprice.”
Ion and Hilda exchanged a glance. “No,” Hilda said. “We want to help you find it.”
“We like you,” Ion said. “You’re fun to be with, and you treat us like friends.”
“You are friends,” Laurelai said. “How could you question that?”
“We needed you to get to the Sometime Islands,” Squid said. “But that’s just the business side. There’s also a personal side. We get along well. For one thing, you understand about getting gender reversed. Few others would.”
“To everyone else we’re spoiled brats,” Hilda said.
“Or royal pains,” Ion said. “Except at Portal Village, where they don’t really know who we are, and we are careful not to tell them.”
“Pains? Not to us,” Laurelai said firmly.
“Not at all,” Squid agreed.
“And you mean it,” Hilda said.
“Of course we mean it,” Squid said. “We’re used to odd children, being two ourselves. I think the others aboard Fibot would feel the same.”
“We’d love to meet them,” Ion said wistfully. “We are set apart by royalty and isolation, and of course by our powerful talents, but think your siblings would relate without experiencing either awe or contempt.”
“As they related to me,” Laurelai agreed.
Squid considered. “If you really want to keep traveling with us, despite the danger, we can introduce you to them when we return.” He reconsidered. “If we return. We’re not fooling about the danger. We’ve already lost several adults we felt closest to, and whatever took them could probably take us too. And you, if you’re with us. So you need to consider whether its worth it, all things considered.”
The twins didn’t hesitate. “We know your mission is dangerous,” Hilda said. “In fact we know that if you fail, we may all be lost, together with our families. So there’s no more danger, really, being with you than being without you. Maybe less with you, if we can help you. We’re all in this together regardless.”
Laurelai nodded. “That’s true, when phrased that way.”
“So let’s go find Caprice Castle,” Ion said. “And maybe save Xanth while we’re at it.”
“Let’s,” Squid agreed, and kissed her again. Ion almost glowed. She knew there was even less future for her with Squid than there was for Squid with Laurelai, and not just because of the gender reversal, but was giving herself up to the moment.
The decision had been made. Squid was relieved.
“But now another awkward question,” Hilda said. “You can zip us from island to island, but that’s not the same as locating Caprice Castle. Purely random won’t do it, because the castle might even change islands while we search, and appear on one we’ve already checked. There also may be a time limit, as we don’t know what is happening there, on what schedule. How do we find it quickly?”
“That’s a good question,” Laurelai said. “Too good. I don’t have an answer. I didn’t really think it through beyond getting to the Sometimes Islands.”
“None of us did,” Ion said.
Then they looked at Squid.
And it came to him. “I can orient on the scene when someone speaks my name. If anyone in Caprice Castle does that, I can be there, in my mind.”
“Will that tell you where it is?” Hilda asked.
Bleep. “No, not necessarily, unless I could rise up to a high turret and look around, and then all I might see would be forest and field.”
“And there’s no guarantee that your name will be spoken,” Laurelai said. But wait—didn’t you say that sometimes you can orient on a thought of you?”
“Yes. But I can’t be sure that anyone there will think of me, let alone speak my name. They surely have other things to focus on.” Because their little mission could not be sure that anyone in Caprice remained alive, she thought dourly. That was their grim purpose: to find out.
Ion smiled. “Too bad you can’t think of them, and evoke their thought of you.”
Squid laughed, then quickly sobered. “I wonder. Our talents have been upgraded. A little bit of an upgrade there could make a big difference. Let me try.” It was as close as he dared come to a hint to Fornax.
He thought of the folk vacationing in Caprice Castle. Dell and Nia, like foster parents to the siblings, especially Nia because of her hidden age. Picka and Dawn Bone, Piton and Data’s parents, who were the hosts of that tour. Dawn was actually a princess, with a Sorceress talent; the idea that she could be abducted was especially frightening. Magnus and Jess, with their traveling show, that the children had planned to join before the crisis struck.
Jess. The prior protagonist. That was what Squid had in common with her. It was an important connection. They had discussed it. Enough of one to evoke a thought?
Jess, Squid thought. I’m thinking of you. Will you think of me?
There was a faint pulse. Squid pounced on it. Yes, me. Squid. The cuttlefish girl. The other protagonist. We discussed it. Please, please, think of me!
The pulse increased. It was definitely a thought, but muted, as if cloaked or suppressed. A thought of her. Maybe confused because Caprice had wards against intrusion. Or because the Squid Jess knew was female, and Squid now was male. That might interfere with the connection in another way.
Squid did not find himself in the scene, but he did have the next best thing: a direction.
He opened his eyes. He pointed. “That way.”
After that it was halfway routine. Squid became the aether oarfish, the others grabbed on, and he oared them all on to the next island in the general right direction. When there were two islands in sight, he chose the one closer to the right direction. It wasn’t perfect, because the islands weren’t always on the line, but they were getting closer, and the signal strength increased.
Until at last they spied the tallest turret of Caprice Castle. “Castle ahoy!” Hilda exclaimed happily.
“That’s Caprice,” Ion said. “It visited Adamant once, and we met Princess Dawn.”
“And Picka Bone,” Hilda said. “He was fun. He changed into a walking skeleton, then back to human.”
They paused to gaze at it. The castle was beautiful, with its surrounding wall, fortified chambers, and graceful towers. It looked pristine.
But of course it couldn’t be, because its occupants never would have deserted the children. Something had to be terribly wrong. What would they fin
d, when they entered it? Because they did have to enter it.
“Can we do this?” Squid asked. Then “Do we have a choice?” And finally “Yes we can, because we have to.”
“We do,” Laurelai agreed. She took Squid’s hand.
They advanced on the castle, half fearing it would fade out, in the quiet manner it traveled. It didn’t. The portcullis was up, and the small service entrance door unlocked. It was almost as if they were expected.
That gave Squid a chill, and he squeezed Laurelai’s hand. She squeezed back, reassuringly, though he knew she was just as nervous as he and the twins were. They did not want to be expected. He looked at Ion and Hilda, in case they wanted to change their minds now that they faced the reality of this challenge, but they shook their heads almost together: no change.
They entered the first hall. It was eerily silent.
“Hello!” Squid called. “Is anybody home?”
There was no answer.
But Squid still felt the direction. Jess was here, somewhere.
They moved cautiously on. Then, in the central court, they found a glassy display case with six standing figures. The six.
“Oh, my,” Laurelai breathed. “They are in suspended animation.”
“In storage,” Hilda agreed. “Until they are needed elsewhere.”
“What could do this to a Sorceress?” Squid asked.
“Only a Demon or a Dwarf Demon, I think,” Hilda answered.
“Can you nullify it, Ion?” Squid asked.
“No. This is not an elixir, but a field that holds them in place. A powerful one.”
Squid nodded. Then she oriented on Jess, who stood beside Magnus, both of them fully clothed like dolls or statues, as if there were nothing wrong. But they were not statues. Squid felt Jess’s mind. It alone was not frozen, but neither was it free.
Oh, Jess, she thought. What has happened to you?
The figure of her adult friend remained fixed in place, her eyes staring over and slightly aside from Squid. But her mind was there. Touch me.
Squid put a hand on Jess’s hand. Now the contact was significantly stronger. Oh, Squid, it is you! Your touch is strange, but I feel your mind.
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