Angus had indeed been a big help, not because of his size or any power of magic, but because of what he knew of legend, and his ability to reason.
But the moment they addressed the prospect of a partial return, they realized that there was more to consider. "We can't just go back to Oria, walk up to the anchor, and move two of us through," Colene said. "The despots are out looking for us, and you can bet they have people watching the East Valley. They'll throw us hi chains the moment we land there."
Again Angus had a good suggestion. "When you travel the filament, you pass many worlds. Most are so small you can not even see them, but large ones are passed too. If you go to a world beyond yours, then return from there to the head of Oria, you may elude the ambush of the despots."
Colene gazed up at him. "You are some kind of genius, Angus!" she exclaimed. "If you were my size, I'd kiss you."
His image appeared before her, her size. "Really?" the image asked.
Colene tried to kiss the image, but her head passed right through without resistance. The image laughed.
Colene stepped back and reconsidered. "Nona! Seqiro! Give me an image."
Obligingly Nona made an image of Colene, standing beside her, and the horse enabled Colene to identify with that image, so that she could control it directly. Now the illusion girl stepped toward the Angus image, embraced it, and kissed it resoundingly. "But I won't go as far as Kara did," her image said, laughing.
The Angus image shook its head. "It is hard to believe that you are unhappy," it said, and faded out.
"It is getting late in the day," Darius said. "We had better rest, and return tomorrow. We will still have an extended job of conjuring to do when we arrive on Oria, to get from the West Spike to the East Valley."
"That should not be a problem," Angus said.
"Not for you," Darius agreed. "You could fly the length of that world in a day. But only Nona can fly, in our group; the rest must walk or be conjured from place to place, tediously."
"No problem for me or for you," Angus said. "Because of course I am coming with you. My service to Nona will not be complete until she ushers in the anima."
Nona turned to stare up at him. "You will do that? Go to Oria and carry us?"
"This is the nature of my commitment," Angus said. "As it was with Kara and Earle. The legend may not be technically accurate, but the substance is correct. I will help you in whatever way I can. So far I have done so with my mind, but I will do so with my body also. This is one advantage of not being your size." He glanced down at Colene as if regretting that advantage.
Nona felt like kissing him herself. His presence on Oria would enormously simplify their problems there.
THEY had a comfortable night in a box with separate chambers for each, including the horse, and abundant pillows. Soon enough the others were asleep, but Nona lay awake. They had accomplished much, but much remained, and she feared that their future course would not be easy.
A man appeared in her chamber. It was the image of Angus. "Since you and I and Seqiro remain awake, let us talk," he said.
Nona was glad for the company. "Sit beside me," she suggested. She was conscious again of the marvelous magic of the horse, which allowed perfect communication between those whose languages would otherwise be a severe barrier.
Angus-image did. "Do not misunderstand my purpose," he said. "I have not come to seek any favor from you, but to broach more serious subjects that occurred to me in afterthought."
"Maybe those are what are keeping me awake," Nona said.
"Your young man—Stave—what do you suppose is his situation now?"
There was the heart of it. Angus must have picked up her suppressed concern from the context of the thoughts the horse relayed automatically. "I fear for him."
"With reason, if your despots are like ours. They will believe him to be guilty, because of his association with you. They may treat him unkindly."
"No!" she said, meaning yes.
"But perhaps they will anticipate your return, having fathomed your nature," Angus continued. "In that case they will keep him captive, hostage to your behavior. This is perhaps your gravest danger."
"How can I do anything if he suffers?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"You can not, for you are of a gentle nature. But if you will consider the advice of one who is conversant with the despotic mentality, I can help you in this too."
"Tell me what to do!"
"It is not for me to tell you, but for you to tell me. Here is my suggestion. Send Darius and Seqiro early to the region you suspect Stave will be held. Let the horse locate him with mind-talk. Then let the man remove him by living conjuration."
"Yes!" Then she reconsidered. "But if I do that, instead of going to the anchor to help them through it, the delay may imperil my mission with the anima."
"This is why I have approached you privately about this matter," Angus-image said. "It is a decision for you to make alone. I will support you in whatever you choose."
Nona considered. "No, I do not have the right. Stave is dear to me alone, not to the others, and they will be endangered. They are helping me to bring the anima, as you are. I can not work against them without their agreement."
"Perhaps I can distract the despots, so that Stave can be rescued without delaying the others."
"It is not right to ask you to endanger yourself for such a thing either," she said. "I—I think I love Stave, but I fear I can not save him."
Another figure appeared. It was Colene. "Don't turn your back on Stave," she said. "Do you think I want you near my man, if you've lost your man?"
"Oh, but I wouldn't—"
"When Provos and I go through the anchor, that will leave you and Darius and Seqiro. Darius notices women. I'd feel a lot better if Stave were there too."
Suddenly Nona appreciated the sense of it. Still, she wasn't sure. "If saving Stave takes time, you may not get to go through your anchor. Then all will be lost, because we need that information."
"It's a calculated risk," the girl replied. "I take them all the time. Save him."
That seemed to be it. "Then I will do it." Nona reached out to touch Colene, forgetting that she couldn't make contact with an image, however real it seemed.
But her hand encountered a solid shoulder. Colene was physical!
"Seqiro woke me," Colene said. "He figured it was my business, and it was." She walked away, returning to her chamber.
Nona shook her head. She did not properly understand Colene, but she liked her. It was a great relief to try to save Stave.
"There is another matter," Angus said. "In any event, the despots will be pursuing you closely, and their familiars will be watching every likely place. The site of the anchor will certainly be among them, even if they do not understand its significance. It may even be that the rescue of Stave will help distract them from it, as they will think that your interest is only in him. But you are unlikely to be able to gather at that site without very soon being pressed by despots. You may get the two people through the anchor, but then not have time to escape yourselves. Even if you conjure as a group to another place, they will be in hot pursuit. I could carry you away, but I will be plainly visible, and unless I take you off that world—"
"If we get them through the anchor, and the despots see, they'll never stop watching that place," Nona said. "Colene and Provos will be captured the moment they return."
"I fear that is the case. So some other distraction seems warranted."
"You have an idea?"
"Yes. If you can make it seem that the site is of no significance, and that you are merely passing it on the way to some other site, perhaps they will watch you instead of that place."
"But it's right by the sea. There's nothing else there except—" Nona paused. "Except the instruments of the Megaplayers."
"Which you now know have no special significance, though they may be archaeologically relevant," Angus said. "However, your despots may believe otherwise. The
y may assume that those are what you seek. If you go to them, and perhaps even enter them—"
"Enter a giant petrified musical instrument?"
"The image in your mind suggests that Kara's mandolin is there, whose hole is at the level of the sea. If you entered that, and then were conjured away, they might assume that that was the anchor. They might destroy it, but leave the real anchor site alone."
"Colene is right!" Nona exclaimed. "You are a genius!"
"However, there remains the problem of hiding until Colene returns with the information. You must keep yourselves safe, or it will still go for nothing. I have one more suggestion, which may not appeal to you."
"I'm sure it is a good one," Nona said. She remained amazed at the intelligence of this giant. Provos had been entirely correct in selecting Angus to convert.
"It is that you go inside the world."
Nona's heart seemed to constrict. "The inner world!" she said. "Where the demons dwell!"
"They are not demons, but the descendants of people and animals and plants that entered that realm long ago," he said. "I have made a study of them too, for they are part of the history of what we are. They exist I think in every world, large and small. They are no longer conventional in appearance, but many do have human intelligence, and perhaps human emotions. They surely do not like the despots, who kill anything strange on sight. They might give you sanctuary."
"It would be a terrible gamble," Nona said, appalled.
"Perhaps it is not a good suggestion. I could bring you back here."
"No, we have to be close to the anchor, because the despots will be near it even if they don't realize exactly where it is, and Colene and Provos will be exposed."
"I will not be able to go with you, inside your world. It is too small for me. But I could carry images of all of you away, perhaps decoying the despots."
"That should be good," Nona agreed. "But Angus, if we are successful, and the anima comes to Oria, what will you do? Jupiter will still be animus."
"I will return to my normal pursuits. My life is not a bad one. The events occurring on Oria will have no effect on Jupiter, and there will be no onus attaching to me here. This will be merely an interesting sidelight in my life, of no interest to others." He seemed a little sad.
"You don't suppose there could be a woman of the anima on Jupiter, who—"
He smiled. "I doubt it. These are rare occurrences. In any event I would be too old for her. But I thank you for the thought."
"And I thank you for your help. You surely are the Megaplayer I sought."
His unage faded. She was alone again. Now she was able to sleep. She dreamed of Kara, looking like herself, and of Earle, looking like a cross between Angus and Darius.
IN the morning Angus carried them to the region of the spike on the rad, and invoked the filament magic. He was larger, and his range was farther, so they went directly to a worldlet in the spike of Oria. This was so small that there was no place on it for Angus to stand; he merely touched it lightly with his hand, the one holding Seqiro. Nona gazed down in the world, and from this vantage it did indeed look like a bug, as Colene described it, with a crude heart-shaped body and a round head and stubby legs of different sizes. Filaments extended out from the head like elaborate feelers, and from the legs like webs. Still, this was a world, surely with its tiny people, its despots and its theows, its families and its children, with their dreams and frustrations. What a marvel of scale this universe was, with worlds and people of every size, and similar cultures everywhere though they hardly communicated with each other or even knew of each other's existence.
Yet by similar token she now knew that this universe was only one of many, and that the others were similar in having their people and dissimilar in having their different rules of magic. So in some, men could conjure living folk, and in some horses could do mind-magic. What an exciting larger framework that must be! If only she coujd visit it! But of course her place was here in her own reality, on her own world, ordinary as it now seemed.
Angus oriented on the filament, going the other way, and conjured them along it. Suddenly they were on the head of Oria, and everything except Angus was normal. Except that this was the part of Oria Nona had never before seen: the western spike, with its base in the diminishing series of heads. Like Jupiter, only much smaller.
Now they moved into their plan. They split into two groups, with Seqiro and Darius together, while Nona, Colene, and Provos remained with Angus. Nona concentrated to locate and alert her prior familiar, the bat, and cause it to fly out to a spot near the despots' castle. She had never before tried to do this at such a range, but was successful. Seqiro's range was limited, but contact with a familiar was a different kind of magic. When the bat found a glade in the forest that was unoccupied, Darius conjured himself and the horse there. The two disappeared, and would rejoin the others when they had rescued Stave.
Angus floated up high and began the daylong flight across the world. Now it hardly seemed different from their other travels; the forest and fields spread out between the rads exactly as on Jupiter or on the little worlds at which they had stopped. But on this one she had direct personal experience of the human events.
She had time to think during the flight, and that was unfortunate. She was worried about Stave, and Seqiro and Darius. Had they been able to rescue Stave, or had they just gotten themselves in trouble? Colene had told her to go for the rescue, but if it failed, what was Colene's loss? Her man and her wonderful horse!
She looked at Colene. They could not talk now, because their languages were gibberish to each other and Seqiro was not here to join them. They were similarly isolated from Angus. They knew what they had to do, but they had been rendered into temporary strangers. The loss of Seqiro was painful.
Colene met her gaze and nodded yes.
Nona was startled. Could the girl have the mind-magic?
Colene seemed surprised too. She held up her hand with her thumb and forefinger almost touching, as if to say "this much." A little bit of mind-magic? The ability to receive a few thoughts, but not to send them out?
Colene nodded. But she seemed unsure. As if it were a talent she was just learning, perhaps from her association with the horse.
Nona had an idea. She made a slate, and a piece of chalk. She showed it to the girl. She drew a circle on the slate, then erased it. Then she held the slate up so that it faced away from Colene, and drew a triangle. She looked past it at the girl.
Colene lifted one hand. Slowly she traced the outline of a figure in the air. It was a triangle.
Nona turned the slate around, showing the triangle. Colene broke into a smile.
Now they had something to do to divert their minds. Nona drew other figures, and Colene traced them with her finger. She was always right. She was picking it up from Nona's mind.
Then Nona drew another triangle, but formed a mental image of a square.
Colene looked perplexed. Finally she drew a figure with seven points, but evidently wasn't sure of it.
Nona turned the slate around, showing the triangle. Then she tapped her head, and drew the square superimposed on the triangle. The two together formed a figure with seven points. Image and thought had merged, and Colene had received both.
The girl looked awed. She really was doing mind-magic! Nona remembered what it had felt like to discover that she had the power of healing, or the power of compaction. It was wonderful, but also somewhat frightening. What did such magic mean? How would it change her life? Was she truly glad to have it?
The answer was yes: the more magic the better. It just took some getting used to.
Colene caught her eye again and nodded. The girl was reassured by Nona's experience. Her power might be slight compared to that of the horse, but it was nevertheless significant, and it might grow.
Provos was sleeping. It seemed best for the two of them to do the same. They might be busy far into the night.
AT dusk they reached the East Sea. An
gus was plainly tired. He would not be able to do anything more than set them down and move away. But he had gotten them here, and the despots had not intercepted them.
Now it was time to do their routine, to fool the despots about their real purpose here.
Angus came down beyond the castle, well away from the place of the instruments. He stood there a moment, and put his hand down to the ground. A blackbird turned in the air, spying the giant: the despots were being alerted.
Angus straightened up and started walking. He was as tall as the trees of the forest, and he moved rapidly. He was not physically tired, but magically tired; this was a rest for him as well as a distraction for the despots.
Colene!
It was Seqiro's thought, sent to all of them. They had come within the horse's range! Nona's relief was so great she was unable to formulate a thought right away.
"Did you get Stave?" Colene cried.
Yes. He is with us. We are hiding in the forest. We have been moving around all day, avoiding the despots.
"Then come to us!" Colene said joyfully. "Angus, hold out your other hand."
The giant did so. The horse and two men appeared in it. They had been reunited!
"Where are the despots?" Colene asked as Nona waved to Stave.
"Everywhere," Darius replied. "Their familiars are scouting all around, and the despots of the rest of the world are doing the same. They knew you were coming, but not where you would land. They will close in on us the moment Angus slows."
Nona saw that the man held a new little doll figure he had crafted: one which resembled Stave. He must have had to conjure himself into Stave's cell, to get the necessary air, liquid, and solid for the conjuration of the new person.
Angus paused, and bent down again, touching the ground with the backs of his hands. After a moment he stood again, resuming his walk. Now the despots had another site to investigate; their familiars had not been close enough to see whether the giant had actually put anyone down, and there could be people fleeing into the forest.
"We'll have to act quickly, when we do," Darius said. "We don't know how long it will take to get you through the anchor."