Fractal Mode

  The Keli creature started at one side of the dais and slowly crossed it with the ribbon. Now there was no way for an invisible man to avoid being intercepted. But Nona knew that this wasn't going to work.

  Because Stave had played a trick on the woman. Nona herself, distracted by the other aspects of the contest, had not caught on to it immediately. The key was this: illusion could be visual or sonic or smell. Not all together. An illusion man could look completely authentic, but he would have to freeze in place for a moment in order to speak. Yet the Stave illusion was speaking without interrupting his motion. That meant that it wasn't the illusion; the man had returned to merge with the illusion, and was now being ignored by the creature who most wanted to catch him. As a tactic, it was a stroke of gentle genius. It seemed that Keli did not know enough of the nature of illusion magic to realize the falsity of this particular example.

  However, Stave was now in front of the creature, and would soon be caught even if she didn't realize that he was real. How would he escape?

  He did have a way. He fetched a ribbon himself and stretched it out before him. "I am going to tie you," he told Keli. "You had better defend yourself, or you will be helpless."

  She paid him no attention. She was intent on her sweep of the dais, which she was sure would be effective, and suffered oo distractions. She moved slowly forward.

  Stave came to stand directly in front of her. "This is your last warning," he said sternly, threatening her with the ribbon.

  Keli took another step. Stave reached over her head, which was now at about half normal human height, and made a loop of ribbon. He dropped it on her and began wrapping more of it around her.

  It was a moment before Keli realized what was happening. She had become so accustomed to tuning him out that she could not adjust instantly. But as the tape tightened about her, she did catch on. "You're real!"

  "You noticed." He was wrapping loops of ribbon around her extended arms now, making spot knots and pulling them tight. Her arms were reaching out so far that she was unable to bring them in quickly to grab him. Then he ducked down to throw a loop around her legs, pulling it tight. He hauled on the ribbon, hard. She had to fall, for her legs were now being bound together and she could not move to recover her balance.

  "You are tying me!" she cried, surprised again, belatedly. She contracted her arms, but they remained enmeshed in the ribbon. Like a spider, he took advantage of her struggles to tie her more securely.

  She tried to extend her legs, and they lengthened grotesquely, but remained tied together. Her shortened arms were bound to her sides. She could not shape-change her way out of confinement.

  "You fooled me!" she accused him, still changing shape.

  "You fooled yourself," he replied. "You will not be breeding with me this day."

  Now she returned to her original form, naked and voluptuous. "Stave, you have me helpless! You can do what you desire with me. Breed with me!"

  The unfortunate thing about it was that he was tempted. Nona felt his desire as he gazed down on her fetching form. Her very helplessness was seductive. She was trying to make it seem that his victory gave him the right to breed, and though he knew better, and had seen how unhuman she could be, he did desire her now.

  But he looked across at Nona, and that stiffened his resolve. "No. I will wait until the time has expired."

  Nona felt renewed guilt, denying him his desire. The mind-talk of the horse was giving her a new perspective, and now she understood why men sought women so avidly. Their passions were readily aroused by superficial appearances, but were very strong.

  "Then let us be together for that time," Keli pleaded. "Keep me tied, but lie here with me, so that I may at least enjoy your closeness."

  Nona realized that the duel was not yet over, and would not be over until the time ran out. Keli might yet manage to seduce Stave.

  But the main action of the match was over. It was time for the next to become the focus.

  That was Darius, against Null-Nona. This one interested Nona for a more personal reason. She wanted Darius to win, of course, but it required some mental adjustment to wish that the image of herself should lose. Despite that image's desire to breed with him, which was not Nona's desire.

  Null-Nona advanced on Darius much as Keli had advanced on Stave: naked and inviting. If the creature succeeded in seducing him, would that make Nona herself culpable? Because it was her likeness that accomplished it? She wished the rabble woman had assumed some other form, or had abandoned this one.

  Darius accepted the woman's embrace. Nona marveled at that, because she knew that Darius did not have the power of illusion; he could not fool the woman into ignoring him, and he could not render himself effectively invisible. But she surely could extend her arms and legs the same way as Keli had, and could snare him with them. It was dangerous to embrace her. He surely knew that. So why did he do it?

  Then Nona saw the doll in his hand. An icon! This was the mechanism of power for his magic. He had made several of them, which he kept with him at all times. This might be the one for Colene, which he could remake to address Null-Nona. More likely it was a new one. He needed to have the body, water, and air of a person for his icon, and he had to get close enough to obtain those things. He was preparing his defense, even as he seemed to yield to her blandishment.

  Darius plucked a hair from Null-Nona's head. Intent on him, she did not notice. She lifted her face to kiss him, while he used his fingers to apply the hair to the icon. There was the essence of the body.

  Darius kissed her. It was a long, deep kiss, most passionate and moist. She thought he was being affected, but he was not. For when it broke, he lifted the icon and put his mouth to it touching it with her saliva. There was the water.

  "Breed with me," Null-Nona breathed ardently. But all Darius did was hold up the icon so that her breath bathed it. There was the air. He had completed his icon of her, and she did not know its significance. Nona herself would not have known it had she not had experience with his magic. The rabble woman was about to lose this duel, because she thought Darius was just another surface man. She thought his magic was illusion.

  Darius put away the icon of her and brought out another. That must be his own. "Let me show you something," he said, lifting his doll.

  For the first time, the woman noticed the icon. She gazed at it with perplexity. A doll was the last thing she had expected to contend with here!

  Darius gestured. He was making a designation: this is here, that is there. Then he moved the icon—and jumped himself, from here to there, away from the woman.

  Null-Nona's mouth dropped open. She turned to stare at Darius, who now stood across the dais from her. He waved. "Magic!" she said, in much the way Keli had, and there was a similar murmur from the audience. That seemed to be so rare a quality here in this nether world that it awed those who beheld it. All of them were desperate for some of that for their offspring, and Nona could not blame them. They believed that they were subhuman, and that only conventional magic would enable them to escape their status as well as their confinement. The truth was that they were bound mainly by their belief; they had little need to escape.

  "Catch me if you can," Darius told her.

  She tried. She fetched the ribbon and stretched it out, advancing on him. She did not look strong enough to tie him, but the rabble, like the ribbon, might be stronger than their assumed forms looked.

  Darius waited until the woman was almost in reach. Then he moved his icon again. Again he hurtled from one spot to another, leaving the woman gazing at nothing. She too seemed happy to tackle the challenge, for this was the kind of magic she wanted her offspring to have.

  Null-Nona advanced on Darius again. This time he brought out his icon of her, and invoked it and moved it—and she found herself back across the dais. This surprised her anew; his magic worked on her. But it did not faze her. She simply resumed her advance from afar.

  This time she threw a loop of ribbon, surpr
ising Darius and managing to snare one of his arms. The ribbon had not seemed solid enough to hurl that way; the woman knew how to use it, so had won the advantage of surprise. Immediately, she hauled on it, tugging Darius off-balance, as she ran into him. In this manner she caught him in another embrace, and this time it was clear that she did not intend to let him go. In fact her arms were extending into bands that wrapped all the way around his body and clasped behind her own back, and her legs were doing the same.

  Darius conjured himself away. But when he landed, the rabble woman was with him: he had in effect carried her along. So he conjured her away—and she carried him along. She had found a way to nullify his magic; he could use it, but it did not free him from her.

  Yet merely clasping him was not enough; Nona had learned to her dismay how a man might rape a woman, but that did not seem feasible in reverse. For one thing, Darius was clothed. How was the rabble woman going to proceed?

  That was already becoming clear. The woman locked her legs around him, and unlocked her arms enough to manipulate the ribbon. She was slowly tying him up, so as to be free to do whatever else she wished without letting him go. At the same time she was drawing off his tunic. She surely knew how to finish what she had started, now that she had him helpless.

  Indeed, her effort was not limited to the physical aspect. "Whom do you love?" she demanded, her thought coming clearly through to Nona.

  "I love Colene," he replied. As he spoke, he formed a mental image of the girl, cute and with evident intelligence and drive. Perhaps he thought that this would discourage the woman. But it did not. Instead Null-Nona started to change to someone else. She did not release him.

  But Darius was not yet defeated. He struggled to move his hands, and though he did not have a lot of leeway, he did manage to bring up the Null-Nona icon. How could that help? AH he could do was move them both together, as he had already demonstrated.

  He brought the doll figure to his other hand. Then he seemed to invoke it and touch one of its little arms. What was he doing?

  Null-Nona had been busy tying him, ignoring the small motions of his hands. Now she stopped. Then, unwillingly, she began to unwind the ribbon. She was freeing him!

  Then Nona understood. The icons had effect on the people they represented when they were invoked. Normally they were used for large movements, such as conjuring from one spot to another. But it seemed that they could be used for small movements too. He was moving her arms and hands, forcing her to do his will instead of her own. He had reversed the ploy.

  Slowly the woman untied him, and then tied herself as well as she was able. Darius helped at the end, directly instead of indirectly. She was now helpless.

  Almost. Her change of form was now complete. She looked exactly like Colene.

  "Come to me, my love!" she cried in Colene's voice. She had picked even that up from his mental image. It was just as if Darius' girlfriend were bound before him. Would that make him succumb?

  Darius stared down at her. Then he lay down with her, not putting his tunic back on. He embraced her, both of them naked.

  Nona's heart sank. The man knew that this wasn't Colene, yet he was doing it! What was wrong with him? Was the likeness everything, and the reality nothing?

  But Darius was not doing anything. He merely lay there, embracing the tied woman. She was as confused as Nona was. "But my love—" she said.

  "My love is Colene, whom you now resemble," he told her. "I am lying with you as I lie with her."

  "But is she not willing?"

  "She is willing and eager."

  "But—"

  "She is underage, by the standard of her culture."

  Nona understood the woman's confusion and amazement. She had thought she had won, then lost, then thought she had managed to win another way, and now learned that this too was a loss, for a reason she had not anticipated. It had been a mistake to emulate Colene, for Colene was sexually forbidden by his code.

  Now it was Seqiro's turn. The horse and the mare approached each other. They sniffed noses, and then tails.

  Then Seqiro turned away. She is not equine, he thought. I have now reached far enough into her mind to learn her nature.

  "Not a mare?" Nona asked. "But isn't she as much a horse as the others are human? Isn't she in heat?"

  She is coming into heat. But her species is not mine. She is a horse-dragon crossbreed, assuming the form but not the nature of a horse. I breed only with my own species.

  Nona was pleasantly amazed. She had thought this contest lost, and instead it was won. "But how did you not know this before?"

  I had not focused fully on her mind while dealing with the others. She seemed like a horse and smelled like a horse. But I require also the mind of a horse, and her mind is alien. Her odor has no further effect.

  Bel was not ready to be spurned. She advanced on Seqiro. He avoided her, stepping aside as she came to him. She turned to encounter him again, only to find him moving away again. He could read her mind; he knew what she was doing, and avoided it at the same time as she did it. She could not close with him.

  She gave up on the equine form, and shifted to what seemed to be her natural one. It was indeed somewhat dragon-like, with a solid tail, short legs, clawed feet, and a large head with endless teeth. A fighting form.

  I can not fight that, the horse thought.

  "You don't have to," Nona said. "Call her bluff."

  Seqiro was surprised, but then read the concept in her mind. He stopped avoiding the dragoness and stood still.

  She came at him with her jaws wide. He didn't flinch, knowing what was in her mind. She stopped, threshing her tail in annoyance.

  It didn't matter, because hurting was not permitted in this contest. The visiting surface folk were too valuable. Bel might bite Seqiro to death, but she couldn't force him to breed. She could not tie him up and make him do it, because he would be potent only when the smell and species were right. He had won, really, by default.

  But another day they will have a true mare here, Seqiro thought warningly.

  "We will tackle that problem when it comes," Darius said. But Nona felt his concern. They were winning today by illusion and novelty. It would not be enough in other circumstances.

  Now it was Nona's turn. Unfortunately she could not simply decline the honor. She could use neither illusion nor self-conjuration to defend herself.

  But she could use her magic, and now was the time.

  Null-Darius advanced on her. She decided to take no chances; once he caught hold of her, she would have to do something desperate to escape, and if she hurt him she would be declared the loser, which would surely mean something she didn't like. Of the several types of magic available to her, most would not be effective here. Transformation of objects would eot help when there were no objects to transform. The same went for conjuration of objects, and she couldn't do it with living people. Healing would not enter into it, because nobody was supposed to be hurt. Expansion or compaction—maybe she could do something with the ribbon, then transform it. But for right now, illusion and levitation seemed to be her choices, and illusion probably would not be very effective, because Null-Darius had seen Darius use it.

  So as the man reached for her, she sailed up into the air and hovered above him, out of his reach. He gaped up at her, and there was another murmur of awe from the throng. They really appreciated true magic!

  But a commotion developed. Surprise was becoming confusion. What was bothering them? They were beginning to look at Darius and Stave, and showing anger.

  Then she realized that even here in the nether realm they had to know that only despot men had such powers of magic, not theow women. They thought that a man was helping her to duel. If so, they would declare her to have forfeited. That could not be allowed.

  "No," she said. "I am the one. I am the ninth of the ninth. I am hiding from the despots."

  The rabble whose minds Seqiro had penetrated understood her. They spoke to their companions, and
in a moment there was a babble throughout the throng as the news was relayed. Her secret was out, but there had been no way to avoid it.

  Then Null-Darius spoke. "You may be that, but that is nothing to us. The change of animus does not affect the rabble. You still must breed. After you have finished with us, then you may return to fulfill your destiny."

  "Unless I defeat you," she replied evenly.

  He shrugged. He walked to the edge and fetched a coil of ribbon. He returned, hefting a loop of it. The material looked thin and light, but she had seen how strong it was, and knew that it had enough solidity to be thrown.

  He hurled the loop up at her. She flew up higher, avoiding it. He could not catch her that way.

  "But how long can you hover?" he asked.

  There was the problem. Levitation might look easy to those who had no magic, but it required as much energy as running, and she was already breathing rapidly. Those who had practiced it all their lives, like Angus, could float for a long time, but Nona had not had that opportunity. She could remain up for a while, but not for a day and a night. When she had to come down, tired, Null-Darius would be there.

  She could not depend on avoiding him. She had to incapacitate him. That meant tying him up.

  But he was larger and surely stronger than she. He would remove any loops she threw about him as fast as they came. Unless she found a way to tie him quickly and effectively.

  She considered as she hovered. Then she thought of a way. She was not sure it would be effective, but it was worth trying.

  She conjured the other coil of ribbon to her. It was not easy performing two types of magic simultaneously, and it tired her more rapidly, but she could do it. Then she formed a loop and used the expansion magic that Angus had helped her to discover. The loop became enormous and heavy. She could not hold it up, and had to drop it. But she re-formed it into an open-bottomed cage, and guided it to land on Null-Darius.

  It trapped him nicely. While he stared at it in surprise she transformed the bottom edges of it into a flat plate that closed it under the man. Now he was sealed in.

  She landed, breathing hard. Had this not worked, she would have had to come down anyway, and he would have had her.