by Jerry
“You can control my mind?” Van asked, no longer bothering to focus thoughts instead of words.
“Only to the extent you wish. I caused you to adopt your V name as your identity, so that you could come under my protection. You can reject it, but then I will be unable to help you.”
That was right! He had been Duff, until his first session with V. Then he had been Van, and he hadn’t even noticed the change. “I am Duff,” he said firmly.
There was no response from V. The statue was merely a statue.
Violet woke. “Something’s wrong!” she exclaimed. She walked unsteadily across to Van.
He looked at her. She was in her nightie, but in other respects she had changed. Her hair hung in lank tangles across harsh features, and her body was pear shaped with breasts that sagged without a bra. The spell was off.
“Oh, Van!” she cried. “You’ve reverted!”
He realized that he himself was not any great prize as far as appearances went. He had dated, but women had not taken him seriously. He was not tall, handsome or muscular, and he did not scintillate with social wit. That was why he preferred the worlds he found in the great fantasy sagas. There, at least, he could pretend.
He was not sure how she saw him, but if last night was an indication, he was as attractive for a man as she had been for a woman. That had been one potent combination!
To hell with reality! He preferred the illusion.
“I am Van!” he said, and willed it so.
“You can indeed nullify my power,” V said. “You must be of my clan, or I can have no effect on you. But it is not kind to do this to Violet, who wants only what is best for this house and family, as well as love.”
Van stood and took Violet in his arms. She was beautiful again. “I’m sorry,” he murmured to her. “I had to know. I will join you in a moment, after I finish talking with V.”
“Oh, I’m so relieved!” Then she kissed him, and he felt the magic of her passion.
She returned to the bed, and he knelt again before V. “I am sorry I doubted you. Tell me what you want me to know.”
“Be silent. Do not speak aloud what I tell you, for this must be private from the devices of this world. They can not hear me, for they are not attuned to magic.”
Van nodded. This might be his hallucination, but it made sense not to blurt out his craziness for the recorders.
“I can read what is in your mind, when you are here and when you wish it. I can make your home life nice for you, and for all members of the household. But my power does not extend to others, who will see you as your world does. When you go out of this house I can enable you and Violet to see each other as you wish, but you are the only ones who will. It is similar with the hearth spirits of the other houses. Outside you will have to speak in voices to others, and they will seem comparatively drab. But all of them understand about this, and are tolerant. All know that there would be no home life at all without acceptance of the hearth spirits. So your bond with Violet is your guarantee of your commitment to this community. You will not have any interest in the women of other homes, except as associates in the colony, and no other man will have interest in Violet. There is no marital discord here, and there is no conflict between members of the colony. This is what our magic provides for you.”
I love it, Van thought. A woman who seemed beautiful only to him, while other women seemed beautiful only to their men. What a way to eliminate temptation!
“But you must settle with the dragon. The dragon will know what is in your heart, as I do not. If you fail the dragon’s test, I can not protect you.”
Victor! He was killed by the dragon!
“Yes, you are right to be concerned about this. Victor’s heart was wrong. He had within him the seed of violence toward his woman and children. He would have destroyed this family and harmed the community. This quality was too subtle for me to grasp at this stage, for I am a limited spirit. The dragon knew, though Victor himself did not, and the dragon destroyed him. All of us were saddened, but it was necessary.”
So he had the explanation for the death. But it was not one the Colonel would accept.
“Now you come to take the place that Victor forfeited, and we must know your heart, for we can not accept you otherwise. I want you to pass the dragon’s test, for there may not be time to find another man for this house if you are wrong. Explore in your heart: Do you bear any animosity toward women or children? Do you harbor suppressed anger that might be expressed against them?”
Van pondered. He had always been disgusted by wife beaters and child molesters, but how could he be sure he was not one himself, potentially? I have little experience with women and children. I don’t think I hate them. My family life was normal. I just—longed for some other kind of life. A life like this. I—I know Violet is not exactly what she seems to me, and that I am not exactly what I seem to her, but I love that seeming. I think my heart is pure, in that respect.
“The dragon will know. Beware his test. If you have any doubt about this, do not face the dragon. Leave this colony and ask the outsiders to send in another spy.”
No! I don’t want to leave! Van was surprised at his own vehemence, but it was from the heart.
“Then you must take the risk. Your life depends on your heart. Today you can come to know the village and the land. Tomorrow you must face the dragon.”
Van waited, but V was silent. “Thank you, spirit of my hearth,” he said, and got up. He replaced the cushion, then went to join Violet. She was eager for him, her need for love as great as his own. He realized that she was very like him, in this respect. Now the two of them were each other’s fulfillment.
In the afternoon, their amours exhausted, they went out together. Now the villagers were in evidence, as they had not been before. Violet introduced him to any they encountered, but there were too many for him to assimilate all at once. They were at work on their various tasks: Some conjured foods, others conjured beverages, and others were magically fashioning materials for clothing and housing. All this was unnecessary, Van realized, because food, clothing and shelter were provided by the project. Probably the project supplies were being changed in appearance by illusion.
However, some were working on weapons. The spells seemed more complicated for these, and Van wasn’t sure what the reality was underlying the swords and staffs and knives. If the culture this village emulated was so peaceful, so in harmony with nature, what was the point of weapons?
“You must find your natural ability,” Violet told him. “Then you will be able to contribute your skill to the community. Perhaps the dragon will know.”
The dragon. He felt a chill. Tomorrow he would have to face that dragon. But he suspected that no sword would help him there.
“This one’s for you,” a stout sword-maker said as they approached.
“This is Todd,” Violet said. “And Tara.” She did not need to say they were a couple; the matching letters made that obvious.
“Hello, Todd,” Van said. He turned to the woman. “Hello, Tara.” But as he focused on her, he saw that she was no woman but a towheaded girl of about ten. He controlled his surprise, remembering what the Colonel had said. No doubt she looked like a grown woman to Todd.
“And Tess,” Violet said, as a child of about three appeared at the door of the house.
There it was again: a small child, where there should be none. Doubly so, in this case: a child with a child. Perhaps a ten-year-old girl could have a romance of a sort with a man, presuming that the dragon didn’t consider it abuse. But she couldn’t have a baby—and how could there be a three-year-old in a colony which had existed only six months? There hadn’t been time for any children to be born, let alone to grow to age three or four. So any way this was figured, it didn’t make sense.
“I see you are perplexed,” Todd said.
Van reoriented. “Well, I don’t know anything about swords.”
“About my family. No, don’t try to dissemble; you’re
new here, and it takes a while to get into the way of it. But T told me you were coming. This sword’s for you, and my wife will show you where to go with it.” He glanced at the three-year-old. “Honey, fetch the harness for him; it’s hanging by the mantel.”
The child disappeared into the house. “It’s too big for her, Todd,” Tara said. “I’ll do it.” She turned to Van. “Come on; I’ll put it on you.”
Van hesitated. “Go ahead,” Violet told him. “You may enter a house at the invitation of its family.”
Bemused, he went to the door, following Tara. “I really don’t—”
He had to stop, because inside stood a slender but quite mature young woman with silken tresses. She looked like Tara, twice as old. Beside her was Tess, unchanged, but now he saw that she was much like the woman, with similar facial features and almost white hair. Mother and daughter, obviously.
The woman smiled. “Yes, I am the same person, Van,” she said, her voice half an octave lower than before. “Forgive me my vanity; I wanted you to see the real me, so I asked T to show you. After this, you will know me for what I am.”
Van lifted his hands in surrender. “A beautiful woman and mother,” he said.
She smiled brilliantly and approached him. “Soon you will believe, Van.” She reached around him, holding the straps of the harness. Her light perfume made him think of a field of perfect flowers.
Van stood quite still, not daring to do otherwise. It was a back harness, with straps crossing his chest, and her breasts pressed against him as she reached, and her fine hair tickled his nose. She tugged at a strap, tightening it, and he lost his balance and grabbed for her involuntarily, his hands falling on her solid hips and buttocks. She was about six inches shorter than he, though outside she had seemed much smaller, and she was definitely all woman. She was beautiful to the senses of sight, sound, touch and smell. “Uh, sorry,” he said, recovering his footing.
“Now you know,” she breathed.
“Now I know,” he agreed, dazed.
“Mommy did that on purpose,” Tess said, giggling.
“I knew that too,” he confessed, having to smile. He understood that Tara was not trying to vamp him; she was just making her point. She was absolutely no child, where it counted.
They stepped out of the house—and Tara was the girl again, the top of her short-haired head well below the level of his shoulder. She glanced at him obliquely, and smiled mischievously. Todd and Violet, facing the house, both laughed. They knew what had happened.
Todd stepped up and lifted the sword. He passed it over Van’s ear and set it into the scabbard within the harness on his back. Now the sword was angling from his left shoulder to his right hip. It felt surprisingly comfortable, as did the harness.
Todd stepped back. “Now draw it,” he said.
“But I don’t—I’d only slice off my own ear, trying,” Van protested.
“I don’t think so. Pretend there’s a griffin coming at you. No time to think. Now!” He tossed something into the air, and suddenly a huge bird-headed tiger appeared. It screeched ear-splittingly and launched itself at Van.
Van’s right hand whipped up across his chest to his shoulder, where the handle of the sword projected near his left ear. It closed on the hilt and tilted it forward and then down. The sword slid down and out across his chest as the scabbard pointed up behind him. Suddenly he was standing with the gleaming blade at the ready.
The griffin squawked with surprise, then dissipated in smoke. It had been illusion. But Van’s newfound expertise with the sword wasn’t; he had drawn it expertly, and knew he could use it well.
“It’s magic,” Tess explained. “Daddy makes good swords.”
Evidently so. Van lifted the blade and tucked the point into the scabbard. He slid it on in, all two feet. This was some weapon!
“Okay, c’mon,” Tara said. “I’ll show you the enchanted forest.”
Van looked helplessly at Violet. “Go ahead,” she said. “She knows the magic better than any of us.”
So Van followed the girl out of the village and down a winding path. The trees seemed larger and more exotic than they had the day before, and odd birds flitted through their foliage.
“See, this is what Todd calls our practice zone,” Tara explained brightly. “To get the feel of the magic, you know. I’m the youngest of the originals, so I adapted quicker.” She smiled impishly. “In fact, this was easier than sex, the first time. I mean, my body was there, but I had no experience at all, ‘cause I hadn’t had years to get into it. Todd was nice about it, though, and now we’ve got Tess. But out here it’s just magic, and I’m closer to it, with less to unlearn. It’s fun.”
“I’ve had one day to get into it,” Van said.
“Yeah, ‘cause you came in late. Gee, I hope the dragon doesn’t fry you!”
“Well, I do have your fa—your husband’s good sword to defend me.”
“It’s no good against the dragon. But out here it’s fine. That’s the idea: Maybe we’ll see something you can use it on.”
“But I understood everything was peaceful, here,” he protested. “That you don’t even kill animals to eat, or cut down trees.”
“Sure. We conjure all the food we need. But some animals are mean, so we have to know how to fend them off. Like that griffin Todd conjured. When we go home, griffins will be real.”
Van was beginning to appreciate the need for weapons.
They circled around a huge tree, and stopped. There was a little boy sitting in the path.
The boy jumped up. He was about Tess’s age, but there was a pugnacious jut to his jaw and mischief in his eyes. “So you’re the new lout,” he said boldly to Van.
“Go away, Nothing,” Tara said. “I’m just showing him the forest.”
“Well, he’s new, ain’t he?” the boy retorted. “The dragon ain’t seen him yet, right? So he can’t make me go away.”
“Just ignore him,” Tara advised Van. “He’s just a pest.” She walked on along the path, suiting action to word.
But the boy danced around her and returned to the path to block Van. “You don’t look like much to me, crap-stuff,” he said. “You come to feel up the woman of that freak who got toasted? Dragon’ll toast you, tomorrow, for sure!”
“Don’t even speak to him,” Tara said. “He’s nothing but trouble. That’s why nobody took him.”
“Took him?”
“For their child,” she said impatiently. “Like I took Tess. I sure wasn’t going to have a daughter the outside way!” She grimaced.
So the children weren’t born, they were taken. From the forest, evidently. Adoption was much easier to explain than natural birth. But where had they come from originally? Surely they weren’t strays from the normal world!
“You couldn’t take anything anyway,” the boy said to Van, dancing before him, impeding his progress. “You couldn’t take a joke if it bit you in the rear!” He lunged as if to do exactly that.
Van put out a hand to stop him. So the boy bit his left hand instead. Right on the center finger.
Van’s breath hissed between his teeth as the pain lanced through his hand. He tried to pull it away, but the boy’s little jaws remained clamped. Van couldn’t get his finger clear without losing skin.
“You let go of him!” Tara cried. “Leave us alone!” But her plea was ineffective.
Van put the thumb and fingers of his right hand against the sides of the boy’s mouth, back far enough to get beyond the teeth. He squeezed, slowly, and the mouth had to open. His finger finally got free.
“Aw, you don’t taste good anyway,” the boy said. Then he kicked Van in the shin.
Again the pain surged. Van hopped back, grabbing his leg—and the boy rammed a finger at his nose.
But Van was already getting smarter. He ducked his head, dropped his leg, and caught the boy under the shoulders with both hands. He lifted the small body up. “What’s the matter with you?” he demanded.
The boy spa
t at him. The spittle scored on Van’s chin. “You’re crap!” he cried. “Dumb stupid ugly ol’ crap!”
Van was furious, but didn’t know what to do. So he set the boy down. “Get out of here,” he said.
The boy picked up a handful of dirt and flung it in Van’s face.
“That’s it!” Tara exclaimed. “I’m going to thump you, Nothing!”
The boy retreated, dancing backward. “Nyaa, nyaa, can’t catch meee!” he chanted, putting his thumb to his nose and waggling his fingers at her. “You think you’re a woman, but you’re just an underaged slut! Just kiddie-porn! I bet that man feels real good, when he—”
Tara lunged at him, but the boy managed to elude her grasp. He turned and darted around a tree whose foliage reached thickly to the ground, forming a kind of hedge.
Tara pulled up short of the curve. “C’mon, we’ll take another route,” she said. “I’m acting violent, and I shouldn’t. T will reprove me. After tomorrow, you’ll be able to drive him off too. He’s such a pest.”
Van had to agree. His finger and shin still hurt, and the spittle remained on his chin. He wiped it off with his fingers. What possessed the boy to be so obnoxious?
They started back along the path, the way they had come. Then there was a scream, coming from the direction they were not following.
“Something’s happened to that boy!” Van said.
“Oh, darn,” Tara agreed. “We’d better look.”
They reversed course and went around the bend. There was the boy, standing terrified before a monstrous dog. The dog had his teeth locked onto the boy’s robe, holding him with one head, while the other head licked its jaws and sniffed the best place to bite first.