So their female assets were effective here. Good enough. Meanwhile, Fox was well on down the street, and had found a spot that radiated green smells, according to Dori. He turned and gave them a high sign. It was a window!
“S’tahw siht?” a new voice demanded. The three turned to it. It was a man garbed in blue with copper buttons and flat feet.
“Uh-oh,” Squid said. “He thinks we’re—”
“Serohw,” the blue man said. “Gniticilos yllagelli no eht teerts.”
The three stared blankly at him. Squid was only just beginning to process the thoughts. “He thinks we’re doing something wrong.”
“I know what he thinks,” Dori said. “We’re in trouble.”
“Ton dewolla ni eht riaf ytic fo Tsew Hsaw. Er’uoy rednu tserra.”
Then other blue men appeared, and clamped linked metal bracelets on them behind their backs. They were hustled helplessly into a wheeled vehicle and taken to a barred cell. The bracelets were removed, but they were locked in. There they were left alone for a while.
“They think we are ladies of the evening,” Dori said.
“We are girls. But it’s not evening yet,” Squid protested.
“Never mind. It’s a misunderstanding we are not in a position to clarify.”
Squid shared a glance with Laurelai. Apparently it was some adult kind of thing. Meanwhile, what were they to do? How could they ever return to Fibot when they were locked up here? Their diversion had gone disastrously wrong.
It was about to get worse.
Blue women appeared. “Pirts hcraes,” one announced.
They stared at her blankly.
“Yrruh pu. Teg tuo fo ruoy sehtolc.”
“Uh-oh,” Squid said. “They want us bare.”
Then Fibot appeared in the cell behind them. They needed no urging; they scrambled over the gunwale and tumbled into the boat as it returned to invisibility. Squid saw the blue women staring. Their quarry had disappeared!
The boat sailed between the bars and out of the building. “How did you find us?” Laurelai asked.
“I know you, especially Dori,” Fox said. “I sniffed your trail. Dori’s scent is the color of light honey.”
“That makes sense,” Laurelai said, laughing. “Mine would be blue/black.”
“It is,” Fox agreed.
“Now don’t misunderstand,” Dori told him. “This is purely relief at being rescued, not any commitment.” Then she threw her arms about him and kissed him so firmly that his feet almost lifted off the deck.
When she let him go, he fell back into a chair. “It will do,” he gasped. Then: “Maybe it’s time to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“I am not a crossbreed. I live in Vulpine Castle because I did an errand for them and they invited me to stay. They have been good to me, never teasing me about my synesthesia the way others do. But I am actually a visitor. I am full human.”
Squid spotted Tata Dogfish observing. True? She thought to him.
True, he replied mentally.
Dori stared at him. “I just naturally assumed—”
“Everyone does. I am happy to be considered a Vulpine. That’s why I adopted the name.”
Her eyes narrowed. “The Vulpine girls, the foxy ladies. They can be very attractive, and cunning in their pursuits, and they are looking for babies. They keep you company?”
“They would if I asked them. But my interest is elsewhere. I would prefer to be with someone in a position to relate to my liability.”
“Liability? But you use it to track things anywhere!”
“I discovered the magic component later. Still, few truly understand the way you do.”
Dori let it drop. But Squid knew that they had just passed a most significant point. Fox was after all marriageable, by Dori’s definition, and he wasn’t committed elsewhere. And she did understand about sensing things in a different manner, even if for her it was only seeing smells.
They sailed through the new window, which had not closed during the delay. Squid knew she was not the only one to breathe a silent sigh of relief.
The next was a forest world, or at least they were among grand trees. Squid and Larry reverted to their natural ages, he to his natural gender, and debarked. Fox and Dori were sniffing out the trail, which seemed to wind among the trees.
Larry and Squid walked by one of the trees, a huge spreading one of indeterminate species. “How do you do, nice visitors,” a voice came.
They paused and looked around, but saw no one. “Uh,” Larry said. “I hear you but I don’t see you.”
“You see me. I am the tree.”
They looked at it. It seemed perfectly ordinary, in trunk, branches, and foliage. “Uh, hello, Tree,” Squid said. “What kind are you?”
“I am a Pleasant Tree, of course. It is so nice to have company.”
A pun. But of course puns abounded everywhere except maybe drear Mundania. “It’s nice to meet you,” Squid said.
Then Fox whistled. He had found a window.
“We have to move on,” Larry said. “But it was indeed pleasant to meet you.”
“Mutual, I’m sure,” the tree said pleasantly.
They went to catch up to Fox and Dori. There was the spot with green smells emanating, though only the two of them could see them. “We’ll go fetch Fibot,” Squid said.
They walked back to where the boat was parked. Several others were out among the trees, unwinding after the nervousness of the prior planet. “They found a window!” Squid called. “All aboard!”
The others came in from the forest and boarded the boat. Then Squid and Larry directed Win and Firenze so that the wind and sail could operate. Soon they came in sight of the window.
Maybe too soon, because Fox and Dori were kissing again. The first kiss must have had an impact. Squid was glad to see it.
This window was low to the ground, almost on it. They sailed through it, emerging in what looked like an orchard. Fruit trees abounded, and it looked like the nicest place yet. Of course that could be deceptive.
“Let’s take a break,” Noe suggested. “I’m happy to take a brief walk.”
The others agreed. They debarked, while Fox signaled the boat, so that Tata and the peeve could guide it to follow him.
“Oh, look!” Data said. “A stocking tree!” She ran to it and harvested a nice pair of stockings. She put them on, and they made her legs look like age 16 instead of age 12.
“Oooo,” Win said, taking some herself. They added about five years to her legs. Then Myst tried a pair, and her legs went from nine to fourteen. All three girls were thrilled. There was just something about having sexy legs. The stockings did not stay up perfectly, but it was easy to pull them back into place.
The trail was becoming clearer, according to Fox. It was not clear to anyone else. It started down a broad avenue between trees, but abruptly diverged to the side, looped three-quarters of the way around a tree trunk and set off in a new direction. It came to a clearing where a number of donkeys were grazing. They were all in pairs.
Larry groaned. “This is a pun world. Those are ass sets.”
Then a male troll appeared, evidently attracted by their exclamations as they donned their stockings. “Well, now!” he said, grabbing hold of Data.
Data snapped her fingers. The troll froze in place, literally, ice flaking off his hide.
“Hey, it works!” Data said. “My Cold Snap!”
That was right. Her talent from the World of Talent. Squid was glad it was serving her in good stead. Of course Data could have turned skeleton and escaped the troll, but this was so much more satisfying.
The trail continued to a deserted building, at least on the inside. A man was hanging on the wall, on his back, busily copying one pad of paper to another. “Uh, sir, what are you doing?
” Larry asked.
The man glanced at him. “I’m copying material, of course. I’m a backup.”
Larry stifled most of his groan. “I hope we find the next window soon,” he muttered.
Then they spied figures running around aimlessly. They were classic numbers, I, II, III, IV, and V. Each had little legs. What were they doing?
“They’re roaming,” Larry gritted. “Because they are Roaming Numerals.”
“Let’s move on,” Squid said. The others were glad to agree.
But their trial of puns was hardly over. They came next to a section overrun by small snakes. They did not look threatening, but it was impossible to avoid them. In fact they oriented on the girls, slithering toward their feet.
“Get away, get away!” Data exclaimed as the little reptiles surrounded her. Then she screamed. “Eeeeek!”
Because two snakes had slithered up her legs. She slapped at them, but they avoided her and wrapped themselves around her thighs. She couldn’t use her cold snap on them because it would have frozen her legs too. Then they clamped their little teeth on the tops of the sagging stockings, pulling them back into place.
“They’re garter snakes!” Noe said. “They hold up the stockings!”
Data had opened her mouth for another multi-E scream, but stifled it. “So they are,” she agreed. “They’re doing a good job, too. No more sag.”
Now Win and Myst stood still while garter snakes slithered up their legs and secured their new stockings. Their legs looked sexier than ever.
And when Piton looked too suggestively at Win’s legs, her snakes eyed him and hissed. They were guarding the stockings and their wearers from any possible molesters.
“You can look at mine,” Myst said.
He did, and there was no hissing. It seemed that the little snakes knew what was what. He was her boyfriend. But he didn’t try to touch the stockings, lest he get bit.
Meanwhile, the boys were finding something of interest to them, a club tree. Firenze took one and hefted it, and Ion took another. Oddly, the clubs did not make them look more threatening. In fact Ula and Vinia, beside them, were startled when the boys took them by the elbows to help them.
“I get it,” Larry said. “These are Gentleman’s Clubs. They make men act like gentlemen in the presence of ladies.”
“I wonder,” Ula said, intrigued. She went to a neighboring tree and harvested a slender lady’s club. And immediately became more solicitous of Firenze.
“And Gentlewoman’s Clubs,” Larry said. “Making disreputable girls act like ladies.”
Ula turned to him as if about to make a sarcastic comment, but instead complimented him. “You are very perceptive, Larry. It must be the woman in you.” Then she glanced at the club as if chiding it for overruling her. But she didn’t drop it.
Benny left Hilda’s side long enough to pick a slender cane. But he immediately walked so fast that it stirred up a dust storm in his wake; leaves and twigs swirled. He quickly threw it away. “That’s a hurry-cane,” he said. “It was making me hurry so fast I was about to leave devastation behind.”
“That could be useful,” Hilda said. “Let me sew a bag for it so we can save it.” She sewed rapidly, forming a long thin container. Then Benny gritted his teeth, picked up the cane, and jammed it in the bag before he could rush off. The cane was quiescent; Hilda’s magic pacified it.
Fox paused. “The path is fading out. It was stronger, but now I am not seeing it. I’m not sure what happened.”
“You’re being too limited,” Dori said. “Use your other senses.”
Surprised, he tried it, listening to a dull background noise. “I hear something purple.”
“Listen for something green.”
“And something yellow. Red. Blue.” He smiled. “Green!” He headed off on a new trail.
“You are helping him,” Squid said.
“It’s just a woman’s intuition, filling in what the man lacks.” But Dori was plainly pleased.
Squid tuned in on Fox, and became aware of what he was seeing. She paused, amazed. Not only did she see green sounds passing rapidly by, she smelled faint green wafts and heard furrowed columns. There were other sounds, feelings, and colors; everything was giving off emanations. It was an entirely different realm.
But Fox was focusing on the green sounds. She joined him in that concentration. There was a kind of path formed by the color, distinguished from the myriad other colors.
There was too much there, too different from her normal perceptions. Squid withdrew, feeling greenly dizzy. Her world returned, but now with a trace of otherness. She was satisfied to let Fox do it.
The new trail led to what looked like a dragon’s den. That was best avoided, unless there was no choice.
There seemed to be no choice. “If I leave the trail, I may not be able to pick it up again farther along,” Fox said worriedly.
And there in the sky was an approaching shape. The dragon!
Ion hurried forward, closely paced by Vinia. “I can pacify it.” He lifted a little bottle, applied a sprayer nozzle, and blew out a small cloud of vapor.
“All the same, I think we’d better get elsewhere,” Fox said. He stepped back.
Ion stood his ground, and Vinia with him, necessarily, though she looked uneasy. The dragon glided down to land, ignoring them as clearly no threat. It was medium-sized, which was big enough to incinerate the boy with a single well-stoked breath of fire. It inhaled, taking in the vapor.
And fell asleep.
Fox stared. He had not seen Ion’s magic before. “I stand corrected.”
“He’s a Magician,” Vinia said proudly. “He is immune to all elixirs, and he collects some for incidentals like this.”
“I will remember,” Fox said. He stepped forward, cocking his ear, resuming the trail of green sound.
The trail led on into the dragon’s cave. Fox followed, Dori pacing him. When it became too dark to proceed safely, Hilda brought out a swatch of cloth. It illuminated, lighting the way. “I, too, collect incidentals,” she said.
The trail led down to an underground pool, and into it. “I don’t like this,” Fox said. “Anything could be down there. I’d better seek another path.”
“We’ve put too much effort into this one,” Squid said. “Fibot can take us down. Fox, can you hear the green from inside the boat?”
“Maybe.”
Come in, Fibot! Squid thought. And in four-and-a-half tenths of a long moment the craft was there with them.
They piled in, and resumed the quest from the observation deck as the boat slowly descended below the surface of the dark water. “This is some craft,” Fox said admiringly.
“It is,” Squid agreed. “We are only borrowing it until we rescue the real boat proprietors.”
“From a Demon?” That was obviously impossible.
“So we fear. But we have to try. Otherwise we have lost regardless. Maybe the Demon rules allow it, depending on how we approach it.”
“You are nervy children.”
“I suppose we are,” Squid agreed. “Our core base of siblings are all effective orphans, and we have had to make compromises to get along. Nerve seems to be part of the package.”
“I am doing this because it gives me a chance to win Dori. But I think had I known more of you siblings, I would have done it for you.”
“Thank you.” She was coming to appreciate the man more, now that she understood his magic.
Fox focused. “Yes, I can make out a green sound through the water. May I converse with your helmsman?”
“That’s Win. This way.” Squid led him back topside, where the screen held back the water.
“Really impressive,” Fox said, observing it. Then, to Win: “Ahead and slightly to the left.”
“Port-side,” she agreed and the craft made a grace
ful turn.
There was a smaller cave there. “Uh-oh,” Fox said. “Too tight for a craft this size.”
“You forget that Fibot can handle any dimension,” Win said. Sure enough, the boat moved through the tighter cave without difficulty.
“Most impressive,” Fox said. “Now bear upward. I hear an air filled cave ahead.”
They glided up, and emerged into the air cave.
“It is here,” Fox said. “The next window.”
The shield faded and they stepped out into the cave. Fox led them to a human skeleton. “This is the chest,” he said, indicating the rib cage.
“Piton. Data,” Squid said. “Your department, I think.”
The two skeleton crossbreeds joined them, along with Myst. “That’s not our type of skeleton,” Piton said. “The bones are wrong.”
“In fact it’s a chest in the form of a skeleton,” Data said.
“The window is inside it,” Fox said.
They tried to get into the chest, but the bones were metallically solid and didn’t budge. “Well, Fibot can handle that too,” Squid said.
“Except that the window is locked,” Fox said. “It is made out of bones, and if you force it, that may destroy it.”
“Let me check,” Myst said. She dissolved into vapor and suffused the chest, causing Fox, Benny, and Dori to react with surprise again.
After a while minus a couple of moments, Myst floated clear of the chest and reformed as a girl. “It is definitely locked,” she reported. “There’s a keyhole, but no key.”
Squid smiled. She brought out her skeleton key. She inserted it between the bones to find the keyhole, and turned it. There was a snap, and the window opened. But it remained encased by the chest.
They returned to the boat, and Win blew it toward and then into the chest. The craft passed between the bones, and through the open window.
They emerged into a storm. Winds buffeted Fibot, threatening to blow it into a jagged mountain. “The trail is forward,” Fox said. “If we can stay on it.”
But the storm was too strong. The boat was being pushed away from the trail. The shield went up, but the wind blasted the shield so that the boat could not make headway.
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