“That’s good,” Lullaby said. “They have a knight light.” So it seemed; it was in the shape of a glowing mounted knight.
“What are you trying to do?” Cyrus demanded.
She smiled. “You are such a handsome man. You must have a fans club”
Cyrus drew yet another blank. “A what?”
“To beat off obsessed fans”
Oh. “No.”
“Now you may if you wish join me in my bed, or sleep here.”
“I am not joining you.”
“Just verifying.” She resumed her singing.
“I won’t—”
When he woke, it was morning. He was lying beside the two girls, who were now stirring.
“What happened?” Rhythm asked.
“Her talent is to sing folk to sleep. She put us down for the night.”
“That’s all?”
“All I know of. I slept too. She was demonstrating her power.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
“If she lets us.”
“Make her forget,” she murmured.
Good idea. They walked out the doorway, and into the main part of the palace.
Lullaby intercepted them. “Ah, you are up. It is time for breakfast.” She gestured to a set table. “I have blue bread and gray V. But watch the Mugs; they will steal from you if you aren’t careful. You don’t want to get Mugged.”
“No thanks,” Cyrus said, refusing to ask about the food. “We’re returning to the troupe.”
“Not yet.” She started to sing.
Cyrus made her forget her intent. By the time she remembered, the three of them were back on the street and walking rapidly away from the castle.
“Well done,” Rhythm murmured. “I didn’t want to show my power.”
“Don’t even speak of it,” he murmured back. “Their spy might be near”
You’re right, she thought. Who is that spy? She doesn’t know. She gets her information from a little bird.
A little bird! He had to smile. But he knew she meant it literally, and it did make sense: Ragna was after all a bird. A big bird, but a bird. He would have bird allies.
“Who could be the spy?” Kadence echoed, evidently receiving the thought too. “Nobody in the troupe would betray us.”
“That’s my impression,” Cyrus said.
“Mine too,” Rhythm said.
They continued to mull it over, mostly silently, as they walked. They were sure that none of the regular troupe members would do it. But what about the peripheral ones? And there they zeroed in on a possibility. Dusty! Rhythm thought.
Dusty had associated with Piper, and with his big sister Dusti. They would have shared troupe gossip with him. And that was Lullaby’s information: troupe gossip. Most troupe members did not know or even suspect Rhythm’s identity. Or that she used the Decade spell to age herself for an hour at a time. Or that Kadence was their daughter. So the real secrets had been maintained. That was good.
Dusti and Piper would not have realized that Dusty was a spy; they were innocent. But why would Dusty join the Roc?
Orienta! Rhythm thought. The Roc must have promised him a nice girlfriend—and delivered.
And there it was. They had solved that riddle.
What were they to do about it? Nothing, Cyrus concluded. Just continue their secrecy about the things that mattered. Ragna had little reason to fear Cyrus or the troupe, but excellent reason to fear Princess Rhythm.
Meanwhile the Roc wants to win you over, Rhythm thought. Are you tempted?
The Roc thought Cyrus was a pedophile! No, he wasn’t tempted.
I was only teasing. But she was angry too, and so was Ka-dence. They would have to live with that suspicion, not refuting it, until this mission was done, one way or another.
But don’t turn him down flatly, Rhythm advised. Let him think you are considering it. Maybe you’ll learn more.
Good point.
The troupe had moved into the village and set up in the vacant lot provided. It seemed that a villager had come to tell them that the Elder approved the presentations, and Cyrus and the girls were being entertained at the palace.
“I was concerned,” Curtis said when they rejoined the troupe. “It’s not like you not to inform me.”
“She put us to sleep with her magic lullaby,” Rhythm said. “We had no chance.”
“She called me a pedophile,” Cyrus muttered.
Curtis knew much of the truth. He tried with reasonable success to stifle his laughter.
“She said he could have us both, openly, if he joined the new order,” Kadence said. Theoretically she was too young to know what a pedophile was, but this was a special situation.
“And that there’s a secret spy in our midst,” Rhythm said.
“A what?” Curtis asked, startled.
“Who provides information about the troupe.”
“There is none,” Curtis said with certainty. “I know these folk. None of them would do that”
Cyrus took him aside and whispered their conclusion. The Curse Friend nodded and departed, shaking his head.
That evening they put on the first play. It was well received.
After the play, Lullaby approached Cyrus. “You may have until your stay here ends, to reconsider the offer,” she said.
“And if I still decline?”
“Ragna will decide. Probably he will let you go. He can’t trust involuntary Minions. But it’s a good offer.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Very good.” She moved on.
That night Rhythm joined him, but was hesitant. “Considering what Lullaby thinks, I don’t know whether to—you know”
Whether to invoke the Decade spell. Surely there were ways for Lullaby to know what happened here, and if she learned that Cyrus was not a pedophile she would realize that she had no real hold over him.
“Let’s just be innocently together,” he said.
Will you settle for that? she asked mentally.
“Of course. I love you regardless”
But you’re a man.
“I am,” he agreed.
Men care only about one thing. Even children know that.
“Not everything children know is true”
You keep surprising me, she thought, snuggling close.
“We’d better talk aloud or sleep, lest some realize” that you can read my mind, he finished as a thought for her to read.
“So what is on your mind, Cyrus?” she asked.
“Two things. One is trying to figure out the weaknesses of Ragna Roc.”
“We haven’t found any.”
“The other is what the prophetic riddle means: Two to the Fifth.”
“We are the Two.”
“And maybe the Roc is the Fifth. And we’re going to him. But that’s just asking to be deleted when we don’t join him. That’s no good”
I can’t say this aloud: that I am a Sorceress who will enchant him. “No good,” she agreed aloud.
Suppose he is immune to your Sorcery? “So there must be something else, because the Good Magician doesn’t speak nonsense”
I’ll bring in my sisters. Actually that’s the plan: to get the three of us together. Nothing can stand against our cubed power. “What else could there be?”
Ragna knows of the three of you. He must have something in mind. “I have no idea”
Deletion. If he catches us. “Surely something bad.”
“Horrible.”
“Awful,” she agreed, snuggling closer.
They slept, innocently. It was wonderful.
In the morning they went to see Lullaby. The plan was for Cyrus to ask leading questions, and for Rhythm to read the answers in the woman’s mind, perhaps gaining some clues.
“Why hello, Cyrus and Rhyme,” Lullaby said as they stood by her door. “Do come in”
Inside, comfortably settled, Cyrus got blunt. “You tell me that Ragna Roc wants my fealty. I have difficulty understanding why
he should want me.”
“You are a cyborg—the first we know of in Xanth. You thus can relate to both the human and the robot species. That could be useful.”
“How could he be sure my fealty was good? That I wasn’t lying, to get close to him and somehow hurt him?”
“You are a cyborg,” she repeated. “You have machine components. An iron skeleton, a data bank, a crossbreed outlook.”
“I do.”
“Machines can’t lie. They have to be true to their programming”
“But I can lie. I’m half human.”
“But only for good reason. Such as to protect yourself from condemnation for violating the Adult Conspiracy. If you make an oath, you will honor it”
She had him there. “Still, I might somehow annoy Ragna, and then he would delete me. Why should I risk that?”
“Apart from free access to your child love? A fine residence? Power over others, in the name of the Roc?”
“Apart from those,” he agreed.
“Because your risk of deletion is much less if you are with Ragna, than if you are against him.”
“Is it really? I am wary.”
“I can give an example. There was a man here in this city who annoyed Ragna by trying to steal food reserved for a favored Minion. Ragna deleted him. But the man had a useful talent, so after a few days Ragna undeleted him. Then the man annoyed him again, being unreformed. This time Ragna banished him. So he was spared, and now he lives elsewhere, we care not where. Ragna is cautious and not vindictive. Maybe some day he will need that man’s talent again.”
“How does Ragna delete something?”
“He merely peers at it and exerts his power”
Cyrus’s mind made a connection. “He has to see something to delete it.”
“Why yes, I suppose he does,” Lullaby agreed. “Does it matter?”
Cyrus reconsidered. “Maybe not. When he deleted Pom-pos City, he did it building by building, and that included everything inside the buildings. So there were things he didn’t directly see, but they were still in range.”
“Maybe the deletion proceeds from the outside in,” she agreed, evidently intrigued.
“Could he delete himself?”
“Maybe with a mirror?”
“Probably the mirror would be deleted,” Rhythm said, smiling.
“But if he could delete himself—could he then undelete himself?” Cyrus asked.
Lullaby shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. It is academic, because he has no reason to delete himself.”
“I suppose not,” Cyrus agreed. “Unless he got captured and imprisoned.”
“He would delete the prison and walk out,” Lullaby said.
That gave Cyrus another idea. “Is there anything he can’t delete?”
“I doubt it. As you noted in Pompos, he deleted everything.”
“So he did,” Cyrus agreed. “Well, thank you. We’ll put on the second play to night. I hope you enjoy it.”
“I’m sure I will”
They departed, returning to the troupe. Cyrus wondered whether Rhythm had gotten any useful information from the woman’s mind.
I did. She didn’t like the sharpness of your questions. She truly serves the Roc, and hates any indication of weakness in him. His having to be within sight of something to delete it or undelete it is a limitation. But there’s more.
Are you teasing me?
No. You really scored with the question about what the Roc can’t delete. There is something. But she doesn’t know what it is.
That was really interesting. The bird had to see it, and something still couldn’t be deleted.
We need to find out what that is, he thought.
Yes we do.
There it lapsed. But they had made significant progress.
The folk of Elasti City really enjoyed the second play, with its stretching the nature of reality and romance. They applauded heartily. They certainly didn’t seem to be oppressed; they liked being under Ragna Roc’s wing.
The third day Cyrus walked around the beautiful city, openly admiring the architecture. But his mind was on the twin mysteries: what could Ragna Roc not delete, and what did Two to the Fifth mean? Were they related?
Two had to be himself and Rhythm. The Fifth must be the Roc. But why the Fifth, and not the Fourth or the Third? What about the intervening numbers? It just wasn’t making any sense.
Lullaby approached him. “I will expect your answer after the conclusion of your third play.”
“I may not be able to give it.”
“You will give it. If you are not for Ragna, we shall have to assume you are against him.”
“That seems fair.” Because Cyrus already knew he would never sign up with the big bird.
The audience was right with the play. The actors were impassioned, knowing that a crisis point was approaching. Were the folk of Elasti City going to let them depart next day in peace? What would happen if they didn’t?
Lullaby is planning something, Rhythm thought. I don’t know what, but she had definitely made some sort of decision.
That did not ease Cyrus’s concern. But all he could do was see it through.
The play proceeded to the point at which Nimby, the Demon Xanth, posed the riddle for the Good Magician Humfrey: why didn’t two chips of reverse wood nullify each other?
“I have three answers for you,” Humfrey said. “You may select what pleases you.”
“I will,” the donkey- headed dragon said.
“First, it is indeed a member of that nonsensical class I mentioned before, so should not be taken seriously.”
“Nevertheless, I am taking it seriously”
Just so. “Second, the two chips are part of the larger reverse wood tree that fragmented eons ago, so don’t affect each other any more than two hands on a person cancel each other; they are part of the same whole, and act together, even if somewhat separated physically.”
“But if they do affect each other, what then?”
“Then, third, they would each reverse the other, causing it to enhance rather than reverse, and it would enhance the reversal ability. So instead of losing reversal, they would reverse other things twice as strongly. So there is no conflict and no paradox”
The donkey head angled thoughtfully. “It seems so simple when you clarify it.”
“That’s my business,” Humfrey said, looking gnomishly smug.
“That resolves my dilemma. Thank you.” The Demon Xanth faded out. That was a spot effect of the Seldom Scene, impressive onstage.
The Good Magician looked around. Suddenly five wives also faded, leaving only MareAnn, the half wife. “Let’s go home, dear,” she said, leaning down toward him. “We haven’t had a moment alone together since the Demon got distracted. We have a lot of thwarted love to make up.”
“Don’t try to kiss me!” Humfrey grumped.
But she tackled him, dropped him to the floor, and planted a huge slobbery kiss on his face as the scene faded. The audience roared, loving the gnome’s obvious embarrassment.
After the curtain calls, Lullaby approached Cyrus. “Have you come to a decision?”
This was the crunch. What did she have in mind? He would simply have to bring it on.
“Yes. I don’t want to swear fealty to Ragna Roc”
She nodded. “I suspected as much. You have been steadfast in that respect. Ragna respects that. Therefore he wants to meet you”
“I prefer to remain with my troupe.” He had to have Rhythm along, and not for personal reasons; she was the key to the defeat of the Roc.
“Of course. Therefore Ragna is extending an invitation for your troupe to bring your plays for performance at Castle Rock Candy, his official residence.”
“An invitation!” Cyrus did not have to pretend astonishment. Just like that, they were to reach the big bird?
“A word of caution. Such invitations, however politely phrased, are not subject to refusal. Your only option is to accept with gratitude.” br />
“But none of us have agreed to swear fealty!” he protested. “We are not his allies”
She nodded again. “Two things about that. First, Ragna does receive visitors who are not his disciples. It is a matter of governance. As an entertainment troupe, you may perform for him and go your way thereafter. Second, if he truly desires your fealty, you and the members of your troupe will be subject to persuasion by Ragna’s Minions. So you may not remain separate.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t want my actors pressured. Certainly I don’t want Rhyme and Kadence held hostage against my enlistment”
She shook her head. “No, no, no! That would be duress, and would not lead to ultimate loyalty. There will be nothing of that sort. The only problem for you might be if some of the members of your troupe were persuaded, and you were not. That might lead to dissension in your ranks”
Why was she playing this so cautiously? “So maybe it would be better not to go”
Suddenly she is afraid, Rhythm’s thought came.
“Cyrus, please. If you decline, not only will you bring the Roc’s ire upon yourself and your troupe, you will bring it on me for not persuading you. I assure you that the invitation is good, and that you will be subject to no coercion or unpleasantness, only reasonable persuasion. He can be a most congenial host, when he tries, and he has a great deal to offer. Only if you try to attack Ragna or his subjects will there be repercussions. I beg you, accept”
She’s sincere.
Cyrus was oddly moved. He had merely been playing a role, that of a wary troupe master, so that there would be no suspicion of his real mission. So he did what his role required. “I apologize for alarming you. On behalf of my troupe, I accept.”
“Oh, thank you!” She flung her arms about him and kissed him.
That, too, was interesting. She thought him a pedophile, with no interest in grown women. But in fact, were he not already taken, he would have found her interesting indeed. She was interesting.
She recovered her composure. “The Roc’s entourage will arrive tomorrow morning. Pack your things early.” She departed.
She’d have taken you to her bed, had you been interested.