“I cheated,” Laurelai agreed, not at all abashed.
They practiced swings again, getting it right. Squid, as a slightly older male, was finding the newly minted females alarmingly intriguing. Far from inhibiting those male thoughts, the costumes enhanced them. That surprised him.
“Is it enough?” Santo asked. “Can we decide whether we can handle this for longer than an hour?”
“I’m not sure,” Noe said. “I am finding the new girls interesting. I wish I could check some who are not in our group.”
“We can, maybe,” Hilda said. “We can go on to Portal Village and do a demonstration there. Can the simulation handle that?”
“Let’s find out,” Santo agreed.
Ion made a quick presentation to the group. “Hilda and I have been there many times as we travel,” he concluded. “Always in our reversed mode. But it hardly matters, because most of them are reversed too. They came through the portal, found others like them, and settled down there, not changing back. They’re nice folk, and they really do understand.”
“Do we have time?” Noe asked. “We’re well along in our hour.”
“In simulation, time is elastic,” Santo said. “We could spend a day and night here, and it would still be within the hour when we emerge.”
“A day and night!” Noe repeated, laughing. “In these bodies?”
Others joined him, but some were thoughtful as they gazed around at the clothed dancers. Laurelai was not the only one who seemed to be enjoying the female form, and Squid was not the only one who increasingly liked being with those exploratory girls. It was a novel and stimulating experience, and it could be that others were conscious of the danger of their mission. Why not live life to the fullest while they could?
The vote was solidly to give the village a try.
The boat cruised on along the route. Soon they spied the village, and halted near the bell. “You four should do the honors,” Santo said. “You know the people.”
Squid and Laurelai got out, followed by Ion and Hilda. Hilda picked up the bell and rang it. The proprietor Inn & Outt promptly appeared. “Back so soon? You must be developing a taste for our cuisine.”
Hilda smiled. “This is more complicated. We are with a larger group: in fact there are twelve of us, plus two animals. The others are new to reversal, and wish to interact with more than just their friends. Could we do a dance for you, and show you some steps, and talk with you? You have so much more experience with reversal than we do.”
Inn & Outt developed a canny look. “I see you have a remarkable flying boat. I have heard of one that has a fiery sail, and is claimed to be larger inside than outside.”
“This is that boat,” Squid agreed.
“Would you be willing to give us a tour? We would promise not to interfere with it in any way, and we would be most obliged.”
Most obliged. There was something about that phrasing that appealed to Squid in his male form. The village had some very pretty girls; how obliging were they prepared to be? “Let us check.”
They checked with Santo, who put it to a vote. They agreed to give the tour.
Soon they were in the village square, boat and all. They put on a demonstration square dance, then split up to take village partners to teach the new moves to. The villagers were plainly thrilled, and were very quick learners. And yes, the village girls were remarkably pretty, and the boys quite handsome. All of them danced well, and rapidly picked up on the new moves. They were putting on their best face.
Squid’s village partner was Ruby, an attractive girl and excellent dancer, with waist-length red hair that flounced prettily as she moved. He remained in his older age, and she matched it, which made her truly intriguing. They talked between dances. “I saw you when you here here last time,” she confided. “I was really jealous of your partner, who had so much of your attention.”
She remembered him from before? Yet this was a simulation, not existing in the real Xanth. Maybe the simulation picked up from his memory of her, though he did not remember seeing her before.
“Laurelai is a nice girl and excellent dancer,” he said noncommittally.
“Yes. All the boys like her.” She glanced across, and Squid followed her gaze. Indeed, four boys were around Laurelai, and she seemed to be thriving.
Squid suppressed a foolish flash of jealousy. “That’s good,” he said, feeling the opposite.
She picked up on it. “They want to get that lovely creature to cross the portal with them. They’re all genderlings, and so am I.”
“Genderlings?”
“Gender switched,” she clarified. “Sometimes we like to revert to our original genders to make out, though we don’t want to stay that way. Would you like to cross with me?”
Suddenly Squid wanted very much to do that. But that was crazy. He hardly knew Ruby, and Laurelai was the one he wanted most to be with, whatever the gender. So he changed the subject. “Does your name mean anything? Like precious stone?”
She laughed. “You mean, the way naval oranges go to sea and stop sailors from getting scurvy? No, nothing like that. It is short for Rubella, a bad disease that can cause cataracts in babies, deafness, heart disease, mental retardation and other things, if their mothers get it when there is an order out to the stork. My talent is to prevent that from happening. So I visit women who are expecting the stork, and that protects their babies.”
“That’s a wonderful talent!” he exclaimed.
“Thank you.” She looked around. “Oh, they’re organizing the tour of your marvelous boat. I desperately want to see it.”
Which might be why she was playing up to him. Squid retained a certain female cynicism. But why not? “I will show you around.”
“Wonderful!” she exclaimed, kissing him on the cheek. That might be a calculated gesture, but it was effective; he felt as if he floated for a moment.
They joined the tour, which Santo conducted. Then they found themselves in Squid’s cabin. Ruby was endlessly enthusiastic about everything she saw.
“The boat is so marvelous,” she enthused. “I love every part of it. But you, Squid—I want to know more about you. How did you come by such an odd name?”
He smiled. “It’s a literal name. I am an alien cuttlefish. We were visiting Xanth as tourists when something happened and I lost my parents, but was saved along with four other children, and we have been here ever since.” This was severely simplified, but he doubted she was really interested in the details.
“You don’t look alien. You seem quite human to me.”
“I am able to emulate the human form well enough to, in effect, become it. I now feel exactly like a boy.”
“Is your romantic interest in girls or in cuttlefish?”
“If I reverted to cuttlefish form, it would be in cuttle females. But when I’m with someone like you, my interest is in you. You are very attractive.”
“Thank you,” she said, kissing his cheek again. Then she put her delicate hands on his head, turned it to face her, and kissed him again, this time on the mouth.
If the cheek kiss had made him float, the mouth kiss catapulted him into sheerest bliss. “Oh, Ruby,” he said, amazed.
“Let’s lie down,” she murmured, taking his hand and leading him to the bed.
Lie down? Was she tired? Her interest in touring the boat seemed to have faded.
She gently drew him down with her. “You haven’t had a girlfriend long, have you.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I haven’t been a boy for long.”
She laughed. “Touche! Let me show you how it’s done.”
Then she was stretched out against him, from shoulder to knee, and her touch seemed electric. She took his upper hand and set it on her bottom. It was as though sweet fire animated him. Then she kissed him again.
Then he was consumed by
passion. He kissed her back as he squeezed her bottom. He had never felt this way before.
He felt moisture on her face. He looked, and saw that she was crying.
“Ruby!” he cried. “Did I hurt you? I’m so sorry. I got carried away.”
“Not your fault,” she said. “It’s mine.”
“I don’t understand. If I have done anything to cause you grief, I’ll stop. I didn’t mean to.”
She swung her legs up and to the side, bringing them down beside the bed. She sat up. “It’s that I can’t do it. You’re too nice, too innocent. It’s not right.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. Then: “What can’t you do?”
“I can’t seduce you.”
He stared at her, “Can’t what?”
She took his hand in hers and held it firmly. “That is what I was doing Squid. Seducing you.”
“But—”
“Listen to me. We were offered a phenomenal prize if we could seduce one or more of you boat people. Pocket portals. We could have them with us, and invoke them any time we chose. Then we could change gender at any time, not having to go through the main portal. If I was with my boyfriend I could change to a boy, and he could change to a girl, and we could continue our lovemaking that way. Or we could be two girls, or two boys. Or join with others and have a group event. There are many possibilities, and we are eager to try them. If we had the pocket portals.”
Squid hung on to one thing for the moment. “Your boyfriend?”
She squeezed his hand. “Squid, we have lives of our own when not being visited. Boyfriends and girlfriends, hot and heavy.”
“But children don’t get that way,” he protested. “We like each other, but we don’t know how to do the adult stuff.”
“True. I am older than I look. I am a young adult. I know how to summon the stork.”
“You know?”
“And I was about to take you there, inducting you into the Conspiracy. To seduce you. You may not know what it’s about, but I do, and once we did it, you would be technically an adult. It’s a violation of the Conspiracy, yes, but sometimes adults do indoctrinate children. But I realized that it just wasn’t right, and I couldn’t do it after all.”
This was beyond his understanding. “Why? I mean, why do that with a child? When you have a boyfriend you could do it with instead?”
“Because of the promise of those pocket portals.”
“But why does someone else want you to do it?”
“We don’t know. But there’s a Demon in the background who can deliver. We think it is one of their Demon Wagers. So we were ready to do it. Only then I couldn’t.”
“Are you the only one?”
“No, not at all. We’re all ready to do it, hoping that at least one would succeed.”
Squid decided to check with Santo, “Santo!” he thought forcefully. “Tune in on me. Better yet, come to me. Something is happening.”
He felt Santo’s acknowledgment. Then Santo arrived at Squid’s cabin, smiling. “Something special?” she asked.
“They are trying to seduce us. A Demon is behind it.”
Santo was instantly serious. “A Demon!”
“A Demon wants us to be seduced. To make us technically adult. I don’t trust this, so I’m checking with you. Why would a Demon do that?”
“There is one likely reason,” Santo said. “Demon contests typically set rules that may make sense only to Demons, not to lesser folk like us. They honor those rules absolutely, not infringing them in the slightest. Often they relate to the manner ignorant mortals may react to particular challenges, in the manner humans might make bets on whether a given ant will turn left or right at the next path intersection. Usually the odds of success or failure are crafted to be precisely even. It may be that children are exempt from capture, according to the rules of this particular wager. Adults aren’t. If there’s an adult aboard Fibot when it reaches Caprice Castle, the enemy Demon can focus and capture the boat.”
“Oh, my,” Squid breathed. “Now it’s beginning to make sense. We are ants.”
“We are phenomenally less than that, to Demons,” Santo agreed. “But on occasion useful for settling their bets.”
“That would also explain Jess’s message to me, in Caprice Castle,” Squid said. “She wasn’t allowed to say any more than that, and the Demon rules specified exactly what she did say. It was meant to be a mystery for me to fathom if I could, and the conclusion I came to could determine the status of a Demon.”
“Demon wagers are almost always for status,” Santo agreed.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ruby said. “But I gather that this is serious mischief to your project.”
“Amen,” Santo said. “But now we must stop any other seductions that may be in progress, because as far as we know, it is the enemy Demon behind them. Can you tune in to the others, Squid?”
“I’ll try.” He was in the background thoughts of the other siblings, and that helped. One was in immediate danger. “Firenze!”
Santo charged off to Firenze’s room, Squid following. There she was, being ardently courted by a handsome village boy, and not at all loath. “Break it up!” Santo said.
“Hey, this was just getting interesting,” Firenze protested, her head appearing to be pleasantly warm.
“It’s a plot by the enemy Demon. Anyone who gets seduced becomes technically an adult, and can then be nabbed by the Demon.”
“Oh, bleepy!” Firenze swore in unladylike fashion.
“And you,” Santo said to the village boy. “You’re older than you look. You’re a young adult. You have no business seducing children. Get out of here.”
The boy, obviously caught in the act, decided not to argue. He departed.
Then Laurelai, who was at special risk because she was so pretty. “Sorry,” Squid said.
“I’m not. If I am tempted to do it, I prefer you.”
After that they routed out the others and ended the tour of the boat. “I’m so sorry,” Ruby said. “I didn’t know it was like that.”
“I know you didn’t,” Squid said. “But I think your conscience just saved our mission. I wish there were a more tangible way I could thank you.”
Ruby smiled sadly. “We were carried away by the promise of those portals, but we do believe in doing the right thing. We wouldn’t care to profit ourselves at your expense. We thought we would be doing you a favor by introducing you to the wonders of adult ways; now I see that this is not at all the case.”
“I am having trouble sorting out my feelings, as well as right and wrong,” Squid said. “I like you, Ruby, and not just because you are one interesting girl. I wish we could be friends.”
“After I almost betrayed you?”
Squid nodded. “It is that ‘almost’ that makes the difference. I wish we could meet again when we’re in our original genders. Not to do anything seductive: just to enjoy each other’s company.”
“I think I would like that too. You are really quite a person, Squid. That’s apart from your alien origin. I never met an alien before.”
“I don’t conceal it, but I don’t advertise it either. I am really trying to make it as a human girl.”
“And you are of course a girl, apart from the portal conversion.”
“Yes. Though I confess to being intrigued by the male aspects. Males have interests and desires that females seldom choose to understand.”
“Oh, yes! A significant part of my enjoyment of this female form is my knowledge of its desirability to a male. I am better at being female because of my male experience. I know what turns a boy on.”
She certainly did. “Oh, Larry would really like to know you! In real life he is the form Laurelai must take, and it’s a problem for him.”
“We must get together, when we don’t have other
priorities.”
“Yes. Is there any way we can get in touch, some time hence?”
“Short of a magic mirror, I don’t know.”
Then Squid thought of something. “I have a special ability to tune in on folk who are mentioning me or thinking about me. I can hear them talking. Sometimes I can send them thoughts, if they are receptive. If you think of me every so often, I may be able to respond.”
“I will do that,” Ruby said. Then she too departed.
Only when it was too late did Squid remember that this was a simulation. Ruby might never think of her, because they didn’t interact in real life. Bleep!
They took the boat back though the portal, reverting to their natural or original genders as the case might be, and sailed back to Castle Roogna. Then held another meeting.
“I don’t think we can go that route,” Santo said.
The others quickly agreed.
“Which leaves the Worlds of Ida. I have no idea how they might lead to Caprice Castle. We will have to ponder.”
They agreed, grimly.
Then the simulation ended, and they were back in the real world.
“Let’s rest for a day,” Santo suggested. “Then tackle our next challenge.”
They were glad to agree.
Back in their own cabin, Squid and Larry, now female and male, hugged. “If there any seductions to be performed,” Larry said, “We can handle it ourselves.”
“Not that we are going to,” Squid said. Her mind was still spinning with the revelations of the day, and their narrow escape from likely disaster.
“But if we ever did,” Larry said, “I would much rather do it with you, rather than with a stranger. You understand.”
“I do,” Squid agreed. Her attraction to him was still increasing. There might be future mischief there, considering what they had figured out.
Then they lay down chastely and slept, holding hands. It was enough.
In the night, Squid woke. Had someone called her name? No, someone was thinking of her. It was Ruby! Ruby thought she had dreamed their interaction, but she remembered Squid and wanted to meet her again. They were out of the simulation, but somehow that much had carried through.
Skeleton Key Page 18
