Something roiled inside Colene. "Dammit, this can't be," she said. But she had no idea what she could do about it. So she, like the others, just stood and watched.
The three surviving members of the family started walking. They went to the other larger structure at the far side of the village. The child entered it, and the woman and neuter walked away. The others dispersed, going about the business of cleaning up after the meal, or to their homes for the night. The visitors retreated to their lodging. The episode was over.
But Colene could not let it go. She knew she had to do something. But what? And what about this deception of language? She had to alert the others about that, but could not do it in the presence of the nulls.
Well, there was a way around that. She grabbed onto Darius' arm. "I need you!" she said, letting her tears come again.
Darius didn't speak. He merely folded her into the circle of his arm. She sobbed against his shoulder and suffered herself to be led inside. The others, sympathetic, did not speak.
They went to their bedroom and closed the door. They stripped and got into the bed. She was the one who always insisted that they sleep together naked, maintaining her illusion that they might have sex. The bed was oddly high, with ceramic funnels facing down on each leg. She wondered why, until she saw something like a rat skittering across the floor. It couldn't be a real Earth rat, of course, but it was this world's equivalent: fast and sneaky. It couldn't climb past the funnel. Ugh. There were also big roachlike bugs, and they could get past the funnels, but seemed more interested in searching out edible debris on the floor. The sheet should fend them off, Colene hoped, so she could sleep halfway in peace.
Colene snuggled close to Darius, plastering her bare body against him as if ready to make love. But she wasn't fooling him. She could read his mind, and he knew it, so he was playing along. He merely lay there and waited for her to make known her concern.
She nibbled on his ear, and kissed it. "We're not being watched, I think, but play it safe," she whispered. "Make love to me."
Obligingly, he shifted to embrace her, stroking her back and buttock. She loved that, because she could afford to: she knew he would not have sex with her until she was ready, and he knew she was not ready. This was a half-structured play, action without intention. So the motions of love and sex play were safe; she could enjoy them without fear of consequence. She wished she could handle the complete sexual act, and she longed for mutual possession, but the specter of the rape still walled her off from any possible pleasure in it. She loved Darius for his understanding and acceptance of her liability. Someday, somehow, they would do it, and then it would be great. But not tonight.
"They understand our language," she whispered between kisses. "They must have learned it from the translator balls while we were away."
Darius turned his face to kiss her hair and then her ear. "To spy on us," he whispered, unsurprised.
At leisure, she worked her mouth back to his ear. "Yes. Spread the word. Don't let them know we know. We'll have to give up some 'secrets' so they don't catch on." He squeezed her thigh, once, in agreement. Then she continued: "They are prey for the dragon. Not allowed to resist. I want to help."
He caught a handful of her hair in his fist and gently lifted her head to place her mouth against his. He kissed her, firmly. He liked this aspect of her. She read his mind, and knew that this was no simple thing; he liked her to be feeling, and he liked her to be distracted from her obsessive depression. When she got involved in the problem of another person, her awareness of death retreated. He wanted her to be happy. This was not mere positive desire; he had a formidable kind of emotional awareness of his own, in connection with his business in his home Mode, and needed her to be happy for their relationship to work out.
"I need to learn more," she whispered. She caught his hand with her own and set it on her breast, and felt his pleasure. She liked giving him pleasure, but could tolerate this particular touch only when it was under her control. "Even if they're all spies, they don't deserve this. But I don't know how to handle that dragon, if we can't kill it. So if you can figure anything, let me know."
He kissed her again, and gave her breast the slightest squeeze. He would work on it.
Then they settled down to sleep. Colene needed Darius' strength and understanding; in the absence of Seqiro, she felt emotionally naked and afraid.
That reminded her: where was Seqiro? Could they connect? They had done so across the Modes before; why not again? She needed him.
She reached out mentally, questing for the mind of the horse. Seqiro! Seqiro! But there was no answer.
She tried and tried, but her own ability was painfully limited. She could read a mind when she was right next to it, and that was all. Seqiro could read a mind across light-years. He could range between Modes. He could project a thought. He could even take over a person and make that person do things that were otherwise difficult or downright impossible alone. He could link several minds so that they could talk with each other regardless of language or species. Colene, in contrast, was a baby. She could read a mind, imperfectly, from up close—and only because she had associated with the horse long enough to start picking it up.
There was more. Seqiro was able to link Nona to her home Mode, thus restoring her full powers of magic. There was no seeming limit to what she could do then. She could fly, or move objects without touching them; she could heal a person's wounds or burn him with fire. She could change the size or shape of something, or its very nature, making a rock into a rose. She could capture a familiar, making an animal serve her or be her eyes and ears. And illusion—she could build whole landscapes with that, or make people seem invisible. With Nona's magic, no prison could hold them; they could forge their way to the anchor and depart despite anything Ddwng could do.
But Seqiro was out of touch. They had had to free his anchor in order to escape the Mode Monster that was consuming Colene's mind. It had happened so suddenly, there had been no time to plan. The new anchor, forming immediately, was the DoOon Mode. What a bad break!
Bad break? No, obviously Ddwng had been lurking throughout, waiting for the chance to establish another anchor. Training the Feline nulls to pounce. And it had worked. Here they were, prisoners. They had blithely walked right into it.
Darius reached across to lay his hand on her back. He could not read her mind, but he was aware when she was stressed.
She turned into him and wet his shoulder with her tears. He did not inquire; he was used to her levels and levels of depression. He wanted merely to comfort her, to the limited extent he was able. Oh, Darius! Her distress morphed into love, expanding like a nova. In that moment he could have taken her sexually, and maybe she would have survived it. But he didn't know, and she couldn't tell him, for that would spoil the fragile, fleeting mood. But the comfort he proffered was great. She soaked it up, and sank into sleep.
In the morning they joined the villagers for breakfast. There were only six trios now. The visiting trios were gone; they had faded away in the confusion after the dragon had struck. Colene asked Pussy, by mixed words and signs: "Where Dragon Family?" It was cumbersome, and she had to play it through long after she had the answer from Pussy's mind, to conceal both her mind-reading ability and her awareness of Pussy's knowledge of her native language.
It turned out that the two remaining adults were gone; they had departed immediately for a central processing station where they would be in effect melted down for parts or material to make new children. Their lives were over; they could not function as a partial family. Colene had to shake her head in bafflement. Pussy took this to mean she could not grasp the fate of the family, but actually it was her resistance to the idea of setting up intelligent people as dragon food and destroying the remnants of families after the dragon struck. Colene had thought of barbarism as brutal butchery of innocent people with swords and clubs; now she had a new definition.
The Feline child was easier. Pussy took Colene to the ot
her large house. There was the girl, in a dormitory with four other orphans. Colene recognized her by the colored cowlick on the back of her head; the Felines were not identical, and they all looked alike only when first seen. She was about eight years old, physically.
"I want to take her out of here," Colene said. Pussy pretended not to understand, and Colene saw that the other Felines, both adult and child, truly did not comprehend her foreign words. Only Pussy—and surely Tom and Cat—actually knew her language. Pussy's understanding was a secret from the villagers as well as from the visitors. Of course Darius would find a way to convey what Colene had learned to the others, probably by touching Burgess and establishing a mind rapport. Nona could then get it from Burgess. They would have to set up a regular secret mode of communication.
So she struggled through with the signs and actions. "I want to take her out of here," she said, hugging the child, whose name was Kit—just like all the others here.
But it could not be, for several good reasons. A juvenile null could be raised only by her own kind, ideally a grown trio. Human beings were not her kind, and they had no neuter complement. So Kit had to be raised by the orphanage.
There was a trio in charge, and while this was not as good as a private family, it would do. When the children there came of age, they would match up with others, forming trios that would in turn become productive citizens and adopt children of their own. They would continue—until the dragon got them.
Colene strove to voice clumsily what she grasped all too well. "The dragon—eats everyone?" So it was: individual strikes were random, but in time the average Feline expected to be taken by the dragon or recycled as a leftover. New children kept coming to the village, and in time forming new trios, and in more time falling to the ultimate predator. Only those protected by the beads were safe, or those taken for work on other planets, as their own nulls had been. The Felines—and the other varieties of nulls, who lived in their own communities around the planet—were all food farms for the dragons.
Colene returned to her group, and relayed what she had learned. "The irony is that their life isn't all that great regardless," she said. "The village is overrun by vermin ranging from giant roaches to vicious rats. They have to fetch in new food every day, because anything left over is taken by the vermin. They're allowed to kill those, but the bodies are foul, and there are so many that more immediately move in. They don't have bug sprays. So these are cats who don't eat rats. I think there's a greater biologic mass of vermin than there is of nulls."
Nona nodded. "I have been trying to clean them out of the house, but it's hopeless. We would need an airtight chamber. I wish I had my magic; I could make a spell to keep them clear. But I'm lucky: Burgess finds them tasty. He sucks them right up."
Colene laughed. "There's the tiny bit of silver lining to this monstrous black cloud. Burgess is happy."
"What was that story you told me," Darius asked. "When I was on your world, learning your language? About the fiddler and the mice." They were speaking freely, in the presence of the nulls, but being careful not to say anything about their secrets.
Colene laughed, a social habit that hardly related to her real mood. "The Pied Piper of Hamlin. He piped his pipes and led the rats out of the town and into the river, where they drowned. Then the city fathers didn't pay him, so he played all the children into the mountain, where they disappeared. Served that cheating city right."
"I could do that," Nona said. "I could summon the rats—or the children. If I had my magic. But what would be the point? There are easier ways to eliminate vermin, magically."
"But it is an appealing story," Darius said. "And if you could get just a little of your magic back, that might be the best way to do it. So that the felines would understand what had happened."
"Actually, these rats don't like music," Nona said. She glanced across the room where a rat lurked, then broke into song. The rat scrambled away so desperately that it actually rolled over and looked dazed.
"So if you sing long enough, you can drive them out," Darius said, smiling. "That's a responsive audience."
The dialogue continued, but Colene's mind drifted. Vermin—children—magic—was there something useful here? There was no magic in the DoOon Mode, but there were dragons. If they could somehow be tamed—
Then in a flash she had it. Maybe.
"Where is the dragon?" she asked Pussy.
The feline looked blank. Colene made a mental note: Pussy was good. She never slipped and revealed her understanding.
Colene pantomimed, baring her teeth, pouncing, carrying something away. She got the concept across: dragon. Pussy took her outside and pointed to the craggy slope of a nearby mountain. The dragon's lair was there.
That was not too far away. Colene went to Nona. "Would you sing to the dragon?"
"That might not repulse it," Nona said warily. "It is a different species."
"That's what I figure. It might like music. I need to know. I want to talk with it."
"Talk with it!"
"Maybe it understands sign language."
"This is humor?"
"This is serious. Will you come with me to see the dragon?"
"The beads protect us," Nona said thoughtfully. "But would they if we actually went to its lair?"
Colene turned to Pussy. "Would they?"
Still no reaction, though Pussy's mind showed perfect understanding of the question.
Colene touched the beads she wore. "Dragon. Safe?"
Slowly, Pussy nodded. She understood the dialogue, but was as mystified as Nona about Colene's purpose. Maybe that was just as well.
"We'll also need some rats," Colene said.
They went along with it. Soon they had a small cage with three captive rats. They had gotten them by putting the cage across the closest escape route, then singing to the rats. Spooked, the creatures had blundered into prison.
In the end the entire party made the trek. Darius knew that Colene's notions could be worthwhile, however weird they seemed, and Burgess liked exploring. The three nulls had to accompany them.
It was a longer climb than it looked. Sweaty and bedraggled, they came at last to the cave that was the dragon's lair. It was an opening in the slope of a steep rocky outcrop, the peak of the mountain rising behind it. The creature was in front of it, well aware of them.
Colene suffered a fit of nervousness. "The beads really do protect us?"
Pussy nodded. Colene knew that she wouldn't deceive them on this, because they were valuable prisoners; no serious risk to their welfare could be tolerated.
But Pussy had her own concern. By signals she reminded Colene that they must not try to hurt the dragon. "Got it," Colene agreed. "I'm a pacifist. I just want to make peace."
Colene walked out before the dragon. It was like an enormous snake or lizard, with five sets of legs and a face as toothy as a crocodile's. It did not move, but its eyes were tracking her.
She stopped about twenty feet from it. "We need to talk," she said.
The dragon did not move. She wasn't close enough to read its mind, so didn't know whether it understood her. Why should it? Her language was foreign to this universe.
She waved her arms, making big sign language gestures. PERSON COME TRUCE DEAL.
Still no reaction. Had she even gotten its attention? Maybe it simply tuned out those protected by the beads.
She stepped closer, and signed again. TRUCE MUSIC.
The dragon's tail twitched. It had reacted!
Colene turned slowly and beckoned to Nona. Nona came to join her, looking distinctly nervous. "Sing," Colene said.
Nona faced the dragon and sang. She was good with music, far better that Colene, but so nervous that her normally smooth voice had a tremolo. Colene didn't recognize the song, but didn't need to; the question was how the dragon would react. She had a wild long-shot hope.
After a moment, astonishingly, the dragon joined in. It pursed its long lips and issued a surprisingly melodic no
te. No, not a note, a tune, a melody—a descant. Not that either; a counterpoint, a nether harmony, melding perfectly with Nona's song.
Colene glanced across at the others. Darius' jaw had dropped. So had those of the three nulls. None of them had ever dreamed of this.
So far so good. Colene thrilled to her victory of logic. She had figured that intelligent predators could have other qualities. Such as appreciation for the arts. That they might be starved for intellectual exercise. Exactly as she would be, if marooned alone with nothing but rabbits for company.
The song ended, the dragon matching the conclusion perfectly. Oh, yes, it understood music! But what else did it understand?
Colene took another step forward and signaled again. TRUCE DEAL.
The dragon watched, but did not react. Either it did not understand the signs, or it did not care.
Colene decided to go for double or nothing. TOUCH she signed. Then she walked slowly, the last few steps. Her heart was pounding; she was terrified, and was sure that the dragon knew it. But she had to make this gamble.
Still the monster did not move. "Touch," Colene said. How far could she push the protection of the beads, without getting chomped? The dragon might not hunt beaded folk, but would it think she was offering herself as a sacrifice? This was a horrible risk to take—and her very terror gave her a thrill. Deep down inside her depressive nature she liked taking suicidal risks; she had done it many times. But never one quite like this.
She stopped directly before the dragon. It still had not moved. She got down on her knees and bent forward. She reached out with her right hand. She laid it on the top of the dragon's snout. It was warm and dry.
Then she concentrated her mind and sent as strong a thought as she could, just as she did with Burgess. Truce. Parlay. Make a deal. Do you understand me, dragon?
And the dragon's thought returned. Yes, alien maiden.
Victory! She had established communication. Will you negotiate?
One eye swiveled to orient on her directly. Yes. How do you do this?