Faun & Games

by Piers Anthony

  “Then maybe you should find something good to do,” Eve suggested. “That would brighten the day.”

  “Like what?” the man demanded grumpily.

  “Like helping a group of strangers to find Ida, the lady with a moon.”

  He considered. “Very well. Take that path.” He pointed out one they wouldn't otherwise have noticed.

  “Thank you so kindly,” Dawn said, flashing him a smile and a bit more as she bowed slightly.

  “So very very kindly,” Eve added, doing much the same.

  “It doesn't matter,” the man said. “We exchanged.” He faced away from them. “Hey villagers! We have something to celebrate!”

  There was a cheer.

  Forrest and the others moved on along the path. “Do you think this is really the way?” Forrest asked. “I don't want to be unduly suspicious, but-”

  “He was telling the truth,” Imbri said in a dreamlet. “I can tell, when a person isn't guarded. They really were looking for something to celebrate.”

  “And couldn't think of it themselves,” Dawn said, shaking her head.

  “This is a very small world,” Eve said. “Maybe they don't have much sense.”

  “Which is our good fortune,” Forrest said.

  Soon the path brought them to a large lake or small sea. It curved up at the end and down at the sides, in the manner of this world. They stood at the bank and gazed across it. Barely in sight was an island.

  “On Pyramid she was on an island,” Imbri remarked. “Do you suppose it's the same here?”

  “It could be,” Dawn said brightly.

  “Or it might not be,” Eve said darkly.

  Forrest sent a grizzled glance at them. “You girls are not being really helpful.”

  They exchanged one of their own glances. Forrest wasn't sure why, as they pretty well knew what was on each other's minds before they spoke.

  “Should we be helpful?” Dawn inquired.

  “Maybe in exchange for a kiss,” Eve answered.

  “No physical contact!” Forrest cried.

  “Aw,” they said together.

  “We do have a mission,” Imbri reminded them with just the merest hint of annoyance suggested by the background image of her dreamlet: a horse kicking two girls in the rear so hard that they went flying through the air to land with a double splash in the lake.

  “I think that means no kiss,” Dawn said with faintly feigned regret.

  “We'll have to help without repayment,” Eve agreed with mock irritation.

  “It's your turn.”

  “It's my turn.” Eve walked to the edge of the water and poked her finger in. “This is the Sarah Sea, containing the Isle of Niffen, which is a large island with white beaches and lush, colorful foliage. Sparkling streams run in all directions, and there is one huge flat rock right smack dab in the middle of the island. It's inhabited by unicorns, dragons, Pegasus, griffins, mermaids, elves, winged goblins, harpies, genies, and assorted crossbreeds, all living in harmony. Especially Niffy Gliff, who is half dragon, half Pegasus, with a unicorn horn from somewhere in her ancestry. They don't much trust strangers, because once hunters came in an ugly little boat, wanting to capture and kill the people and animals and build a squat commercial tourist hotel instead. Fortunately Niffy and his friend Cliffy put on their scariest costumes, snuck up on the hunters, cried. “Neeehhhoooooouuuuu!!!” and scared them out of their skins, saving the isle.” She stood and came to take Forrest's hand.

  Forrest was impressed. “You can tell all that, just from sticking your finger in the water?”

  “It's my talent,” Eve said. “Just as my sister could tell all about every nymph you ever chased and caught, just from touching one of your fingers. Including the one who turned out to be a harpy. But of course she wouldn't tell anybody about that, or about the way the leaves of the neglected tree got disgustingly soiled with-”

  “Thank you,” Forrest said tightly. “Your talents are indeed impressive.

  So is Ida on that isle?”

  “Ooops, I didn't check for that.” Eve let his hand go, knelt, and stuck her finger back in the water. “Yes, she lives on the flat rock, and goes each day to fetch water from the nearest sparkling stream.”

  She stood again, and took his hand again. What was she up to now?

  “How do you know about the living creatures on the Isle?” Imbri inquired. “Isn't that Dawn's talent?”

  “Not exactly,” Dawn said. “Our talents overlap somewhat. So when I tell everything about some living thing, I also know what it is wearing, where it lives, and what the weather around it is, even though these are inanimate, because they relate to the creature I'm examining. Similarly Dawn knows about the living things that relate to the inanimate thing she is examining. So if I touched a pool, and she touched a fish in the pool, we would both learn most of the same things.”

  “That does make sense,” Imbri agreed.

  Forrest didn't comment. He was embarrassed because of the discovery of just how much the girls had fathomed of his past history. He had thought of them as provocative but essentially innocent creatures; now he knew that they knew everything they wanted to know, of whatever nature.

  Probably the dread Adult Conspiracy of Silence had never had much effect on them, though they would have been careful to seem properly innocent.

  “So what should we do now, adviser dear?” Dawn asked brightly.

  “Now that we know where Ida is, Forrest darling,” Eve added darkly, giving his hand a tweak.

  “We go see her,” he said gruffly. “We'll have to use our other small crosses.”

  “Ooooh, suppose we get trapped on the Isle of Niffen,” Dawn said.

  “And there's nothing to do but live there forever and raise our children,” Eve said.

  “Which we will no doubt have to signal the stork for many times.”

  “Somehow coaxing the cooperation of a reluctant faun.”

  Imbri sent a dreamlet of two lovely nymphs, one fair and one dark, tugging a reluctant faun toward a love spring. His hoofs were leaving drag-marks in the soil. The mare was evidently enjoying the way the twins constantly put him on the defensive. Both girls laughed, appreciating the apt image.

  “We won't get trapped,” Forrest said, trying to sound neither intrigued nor grumpy. “We'll have the one big cross left, and anyway, once we talk with Ida, we can return directly to Pyramid to pursue our mission.”

  The two girls exchanged yet another unnecessary glance. “Are we losing our teasing skill?” Dawn inquired of no one in particular.

  “Or is he losing his teasability?” Eve asked of the same person. Once more she squeezed his hand.

  “He just wants to get the job done,” Forrest said, finally freeing his hand and taking his small cross from his knapsack.

  The girls dug theirs out of their purses. Forrest was never sure what happened to those purses when they weren't in use; they just seemed to disappear. Imbri used her teeth to get hers. Then they invoked them, almost together, and zoomed across the lake to the Isle of Niffen.

  It was exactly as described. The beach was white, and the foliage was lush and colorful. And there, gliding in, was Niffy Gliff, the combination griffin Pegasus with the horn. He looked threatening.

  “We aren't hunters!” Imbri cried in a dreamlet. “We are visitors from another world who must talk with Ida.”

  “Neigh?” Niffy inquired.

  “Well, we're not exactly friends of hers,” Imbri said in the dreamlet.

  “But we know her-her cousin on the other world, and she sent us to talk with Ida. So I'm sure we'll be friends the moment we meet.”

  Niffy considered, and decided that that was good enough. “Neigh,” he said, and led the way.

  They followed him along a nice path that wound through the lush foliage to a sparkling steam. The lushes looked a bit tipsy, but the sparkles were beautiful. They came to the huge flat rock, which had steps at one edge, so they could climb to the flattop. And there w
as a nice little house with a pleasant little garden.

  Ida came out to meet them. She looked just the same, except that her moon was in the shape of a cone. “I am told you know my cousin,” she said. “What cousin would that be?”

  A number of creatures had gathered around the house. Evidently news of the visitors had spread rapidly across the Isle. They seemed to be in a state of readiness. Forrest realized that if the creatures thought the visitors were not on the level, they would be quickly leveled.

  “Cousin may not be exactly the right word,” Forrest said. “She is your analog on the world of Pyramid, about whose head this world of Torus orbits. She thought you could help us learn what we must know to save Pyramid from cruel exploitation by the colorful Wizards”

  “Why I suppose I could,” Ida said. “I don't know the answer myself, but I believe it's on Cone.”

  Forrest quailed. “We have to go to another moon? We're already on the moon of a moon of a moon.”

  Ida smiled. “I suppose that would get confusing. No, I can take a cone section and get the information. Let me concentrate.”

  She concentrated. The moon took note, as its point pointed straight up for a full orbit. “Yes, I have your information,” Ida said. “But there is a complication you may not have considered.”

  “There always is,” Imbri muttered in a dreamlet sent to Forrest alone.

  “What complication is that?” he asked Ida.

  “It is that here on Torus, anyone who does another a favor or a service incurs a burden of emotion. The greater the service, the greater the emotion. So we are rather careful about the services we render, and to whom.”

  “Emotion,” Forrest said. “As in happiness or sadness?”

  “Not exactly. As in liking or loving.”

  “Uh-oh,” Dawn murmured.

  “Mischief,” Eve agreed.

  Forrest agreed. “Does this mean that if you do me the service of telling me what I need to know, you will-that is-”

  “Exactly. Considering the importance of the information to your mission, I will be in love with you. And without meaning any affront to you, I must say that I do not care to be in love with a creature who will immediately leave me forever.”

  “I would not care to have that happen either,” Forrest said. “Even if I were staying here, I am not at all sure it would be proper. You surely have some prince who will seek you out at some time.”

  “That would be nice,” Ida agreed.

  “Is there any way to counter or nullify the effect?” Imbri asked in a general dreamlet.

  “Yes there is. People can exchange equivalent favors, so that the effect cancels out. These must occur at about the same time. If one favor is done at one time, and the other at another time, both will incur the penalties. In fact this is the way marriages are made: by the exchange of favors on consecutive days. So if you have some favor you can do me in return, that is as valuable to me as my information is to you, we shall be all right.”

  “Oh, wow,” Dawn said. “We were all doing each other favors, trying to escape that tangle tree.”

  “So they canceled out,” Eve agreed. “But then I got a favor from that villager.”

  “No, you did him the favor of showing him how to have a good day,” Imbri said in a dreamlet. “It was a fair exchange.”

  “oooo, that's what he meant!” Dawn exclaimed, clapping her hands. “When we thanked him, and gave him something to see.”

  “He said. ‘It doesn't matter-we exchanged,’ and we didn't understand,”

  Eve agreed. “He meant that we didn't love him, and he didn't love us, so there was no point in showing him anything interesting.”

  “But he was interested, or he wouldn't have said that.”

  “Yes. It's nice to know that our stuff works here, too.”

  “You girls seem to enjoy impressing men,” Ida remarked. They both smiled, acknowledging it.

  “But then you did a service for Forrest,” Dawn said. “Telling him all about the lake and Isle.”

  Which had enhanced her feeling for him, Forrest realized ruefully. That explained some things. But there seemed to be no point in discussing that now.

  At least they could balance things, with Ida. This was looking better.

  “What information do you want, that is this valuable?”

  “Unfortunately, what I most desire is knowledge of something I fear you would be even less in a position to know than I. As you may have noticed, the Isle of Niffen is on a small sea. I would like to know all about this sea, from its name to its deepest creatures. I already know all about the Isle, but the water has eluded me.”

  “I can-” Eve started, but Forrest cut her off with a sharp glance. Her sister wiped the cut off her face; the glance had been too sharp.

  “You don't want to do that,” Forrest said. “Because then you would love Ida.”

  “Then Eve would love Ida, and Ida would love Forrest,” Dawn said.

  “That's no good.”

  “But suppose Eve gave Forrest the information?” Imbri asked.

  “And then he gave it to Ida in exchange?”

  “Then Eve would love Forrest,” Dawn protested.

  “Doesn't she already?”

  Eve's mouth formed a pretty round 0. “I do!”

  “We both do,” Dawn said. “But wouldn't she love him more than I do?”

  “I think I already do,” Eve said. “Because it was for him I got the information on the lake and Isle. I didn't realize the effect it would have on me.”

  “Oh, my,” Dawn said, dismayed. “That's why you were holding his hand.”

  “Was I? I suppose I was. I didn't realize.”

  “You could do him a favor some other time, Dawn,” Imbri suggested.

  “Maybe so,” Dawn agreed thoughtfully. “I will keep it in mind.”

  Forrest wished he had known of this complication before asking Eve for the information on the lake. He had wondered about the hand holding, because up until that time the two girls had done things evenly. But he hadn't understood, so had done her no return favor.

  But that complication would have to wait. Forrest faced Ida. “Eve can tell anything about anything inanimate. She will learn all about the lake, and tell me, and I will exchange that information with you. Does this seem fair?”

  “Yes, remarkably fair,” Ida agreed.

  “Then Eve and I will go to the water and learn what we need. Meanwhile Dawn and Mare Imbri can chat with you, if you like. I'm sure there are incidental things you could exchange, keeping them in balance.” Even as he spoke, he wondered why he had set it up that way. Surely he didn't want to be alone with Eve at this time! Or did he?

  “Yes, surely,” Ida agreed.

  So Forrest and Eve followed the path back to the water. The assorted animals of the Isle let them be, knowing that they were not hunters. Eve insisted on holding his hand again. “If I am going to be even more in love with you, I want to grab every moment I can,” she explained.

  “But such contact with me will only increase your desire to-to do what we should not.”

  “It can't,” she said dreamily.

  Forrest decided not to argue, though he was not entirely at ease with this. For one thing, this was the first time he had been really alone with either girl, so the inhibition of numbers was gone. Eve was evidently working up to more than just information. And he was evidently facilitating it, though he knew he should not. The complications of relationships with nonnymphly women were both confusing and tantalizing.

  They reached the water, and she knelt down, ready to stick her finger in. Then she stood. “No, I have a better notion,” she said, approaching him.

  “What is that?” he asked warily.

  “This.” She lurched suddenly, and pushed him into the water. When he tried to catch his balance, she flung her arms around him and hauled him down. They both made a great splash as they fell in.

  “But there may be water monsters!” he cried, trying to scramble
back out.

  She just clung more tightly. “No there aren't. Not at this beach. Now let me tell you all about it.”

  “But you don't have to hold me while you tell me,” he protested.

  “Yes I do,” she said firmly. Very firmly, for she was plastered against him, and she had dissolved all her clothing.

  “You are taking advantage of the situation,” he informed her. And he was letting her, he realized.

  “I certainly am. This is almost as good as a love spring.”

  “But what's the point? You know I'm not going to-not until the mission is done.”

  “I know. But you will be sorely tempted, and you will remember what I feel like, this close, and when the time comes, you will not try to find a pretext to avoid it.”

  She was eerily accurate. Already it took most of his willpower to maintain his nominal diffidence. “How do you know so much about me, when it's Dawn's talent to know all about living creatures, not Yours?”

  He was trying to distract her; they had already explained about the overlapping of their talents.

  “She told me.”

  “But doesn't she have a-an equal interest? Why should she tell you how to-”

  “When her chance comes, she'll do the same. My chance just happened to come first. So she didn't interfere, and I won't interfere during her turn.”

  “But how does she know you won't-”

  “Our agreement is up to, but not including, the stork. We must be together for that. So I'll give her the chance to do you an equivalent favor before then, so we'll be even again. And we'll both give you opportunity to do us favors, on other days, so your interest will match ours. We will keep you quite busy, for a while.”

  “You girls are almost frightening in your cooperation.”

  “Never trust a Sorceress,” she agreed. “Let alone two of us.”

  Forrest resigned himself. These girls had his number, and knew it. He really didn't need to do them any favors, to find them dangerously appealing. “Tell me all about this lake.”

  She started talking, punctuating her sentences with kisses on his ears.

  It took some time.

  At last they emerged from the water. Forrest was shaky, not from the information, but from Eve's kisses. There might not be magic in them, but they nevertheless had extraordinary force. She was right: he would be dreaming of her during whatever off moments were available, and when the time came, he would not make any excuses. She had captured his desire. The irony was that his weakness of the moment gave her the pretext to put her arm around him and help support him. She hadn't bothered to form clothing, and her touch remained electric.