Symbol smiled. “He's got three remarkable babies, two sexy women, all the power of the planet, and he feels confined."
“Understanding,” Augur said. He was the only other man in the room. “Adventure is better."
“Typical men,” Aura said. “Augur had endless sex with two women, a succubus, and a Glamor, and he's bored too."
“Let's leave these dull creatures and get drunk,” Havoc said to Augur.
“Enthusiasm,” the red man agreed.
The two left the chamber.
“Fake,” Gale said. “A Glamor can't get drunk, and Havoc didn't do it when he was mortal."
“Augur neither,” Aura agreed. They all laughed.
Soon Ennui and Aspect went to see Havoc. She had access to him at any time, both as his secretary and his oath friend. “We have to go find more yarn,” she said. “This may take some time away from the palace. Can you spare us?"
“Not readily,” Havoc said. “I depend on both of you to steer me right, in decision and protocol. I have little competence for kingship."
“You have competence,” Aspect said. “What you lack is taste for it."
He nodded. “I need both of you as I need Gale and Symbol, only in different ways. Suggestion: I'll go find the yarn; you remain here to run the kingdom."
Both smiled. “Understanding,” Ennui said. “But negation. We have the loom ikon to lead us, and we know how to use it. You can't touch it."
“Agreement.” He sighed. “Go, ladies. Return soon."
“Love,” Aspect said. “Parting."
“Parting,” Ennui echoed.
He reached out and caught them both around their waists, drawing them into him. The ikons resisted, but allowed this. He kissed each on the cheek, with evident effort; it was not easy for him to touch them. “Love,” he said. “Parting."
They found themselves in the hall. Ennui was reeling. “He said ‘Love,'” she breathed.
“And ‘Parting,'” Aspect agreed. “But I know what you mean. We're his mother's age."
“It must be the ikon. It not only makes me feel sexy, it links me to him. I feel so guilty."
“For what?"
“As if you didn't know!"
“As if I didn't know,” Aspect echoed. “But we must bear in mind two things: we can never touch him that way as long as we bear the ikons, and it is the ikons that turn us on, not our natural inclinations. So we should feel neither threat nor guilt. He is surely oblivious; let's leave him that way."
“Agreement!” Ennui found herself flushing. “He meant friendship love, not passion.” But still she felt like a teen girl after her first serious kiss.
“We must bid parting to Gale and Symbol."
They went to the baby chamber and knocked. “Welcome, Ladies!” Gale called.
At the moment the babies were quiet. “We must seek yarn,” Ennui explained. “For the tapestry. We may be gone some time. We came to bid parting."
“It is a worthy mission,” Gale said. “Do you need guards?"
“Negation; that would end privacy. We'll travel as On and Speck. The ikons protect us."
“Advice,” Symbol said. “The ikons do more than protect. Use them to advantage."
“Question?” Aspect asked.
“They turn you on sexually, and make you sexually appealing. You could seduce a random man almost as readily as I could."
“Doubt,” Ennui protested. But she suspected it was true.
“Anonymous travel means you must pay your way,” Symbol continued. “Not every Chroma man will be satisfied with cooking or housecleaning. Use the universal offering: no fault. It is expected of nubile travelers."
“I am beyond nubility,” Ennui said, feeling the flush rising again.
“Not any more. With proper expertise you will have no trouble."
“I'm forty one years old!"
“Not any more,” Symbol repeated. “Your body is thirty, pushing twenty nine, and rarely formed. You have but to show it, and the terms of travel are yours to set."
“Disbelief."
“Demonstration. You know how I am formed, but I can't show you nudity.” She glanced at Gale. “Show?"
Gale stood and removed her robe, quickly nude. Her pregnancy did not yet show. She was as shapely a young woman as any in the city.
“Now the two of you,” Symbol said. “Before the mirror."
“Protest,” Ennui said.
But Aspect understood the demonstration. “Withdrawn,” she said, removing her own clothing.
Overruled, Ennui did the same. Soon the three of them stood before the large wall mirror.
Ennui gasped. They were three beauties, a young one and two mature ones. All had slender bodies and outstanding breasts. The main differences were in the faces and hair. She had thought she would be ashamed to stand nude beside a beauty like Gale, but she had become remarkably comely. That was of course why Symbol had set this up: to show the two older women just how far the ikons had taken them. Certainly it was magic.
“Some adjustments,” Symbol said. She put her fingers to Ennui's hair and removed the combs that bound it into a bun. Her dark tresses dropped loosely to her waist, half masking her breasts. Aspect did the same with her hair. Ennui's hair had been somewhat lusterless; now it was lustrous, falling in silken hanks. Aspect's hair had been good; now it was perfect.
The figures in the mirror looked even more similar. They were three sirens.
“And makeup,” Symbol continued, applying it to Ennui's face. In a moment her eyes were darker and larger, her lips prominent. She could be a king's dancer. Aspect, doing the same, was similar.
“Amazement.” Yet her appearance merely reflected the way she felt. “I was never like this."
“The ikons are potent,” Aspect said. “They have been working on us both, restoring me, enhancing you. Yours has indeed made of you the woman you never were."
“Now move it,” Symbol said, demonstrating with a flourish of her swathed hips. Aspect readily emulated her, remembering her youthful beauty, but Ennui couldn't.
“The knees,” Gale said. “They power the hips."
Ennui bent her knees in turn, and saw her hips flaunt in the mirror. It was astonishingly sexy. Could that really be her?
“Try the rear,” Symbol said, giving her a hand mirror and turning her to face away from the wall mirror. “Do the knees again, and watch."
Ennui held the mirror so that she could see the reflection of her backside as she moved. Her back was narrow, her hips remarkably wider, and her legs were impossibly shapely. Suddenly her bottom flexed, radiating sex appeal. “That can't be me!” But it was. It was like a dream of transformation, and she half expected to wake at any moment.
“Buttressed by the right clothing, you will be a killer,” Symbol said approvingly. She got to work on it.
“But we need to be anonymous,” Ennui said. “This—this will make of us a tour of courtesans."
“Masked by dingy outer robes,” Symbol said. “Now when you approach the proprietor of a Chroma transport, bear in mind that he will be intrigued by your nonChroma appearance. Chroma men love to have sex with otherChroma and nonChroma women, just for the novelty. So you should show very little, and that briefly, until the deal is made. A little goes a very long way, when you have such a body."
“But to—to solicit strange men for sex—I could never do that,” Ennui said.
“One does it subtly,” Symbol said. “Pretend you are a man for a moment. Gale?"
Gale, now fully dressed, came to stand before Ennui. “I need to cross this Chroma zone. I have little to offer in trade.” But her robe had fallen partly open, revealing the shadowed contour of one full breast.
“And the man will say he has a better idea,” Symbol said as Gale inconspicuously drew her robe closed. “You will demur at first, but not strongly, and soon allow him to persuade you to acquiesce to his suggestion. You never openly solicited him. You don't need to."
“But still—to sell sex
—"
“It is expected,” Symbol repeated. “No fault can be a great tool. Women with your forms can do quite well, and there will be no complaints."
“But sex!"
“Which is what the ikon is making us desire,” Aspect reminded her. “We want to be wanton."
It was true. They wanted to travel anonymously, and this was the way it was done. And it would allow them to indulge passions that were becoming overwhelming. Already Throe, a good man, was surfeit, being unable to satisfy her completely, and she knew it was similar with Aspect and Chief. Nonce had less trouble, because while the loom was full size it wasn't enhancing her, but when she carried it as an ikon, it would. To travel without men would be asking for trouble, unless they had a plan to handle it. And they had to get more yarn. This would get the job done.
Considerably educated, they postponed their journey until morning. That gave them one last night's fling with their men, and a few more hours to adjust to the notion of serious no fault traveling.
Yet they were restless. Their men, thoroughly satisfied, were sleeping, but the women were still up. “I feel nostalgia for the palace, and we haven't even left it yet,” Ennui said.
“Agreement. I find myself pondering who will perform our functions while we are absent."
“And I find myself pondering whether we really should keep our secret from Havoc."
Aspect smiled. “Let's choose our successors, and tell Havoc."
“Let's be naughty, and tell Havoc about our secret passion for him."
Aspect agreed. Perhaps, with luck, they would succeed in shocking him. They departed for the royal chamber, mentally signaling their intention to meet him so that he could see them privately if he wished.
Later, satisfied that they had surprised Havoc and nudged him in two new directions, they returned to their beds and slept. It had been naughty fun.
In the morning the three of them set out, wearing rather dingy robes over rather tight outfits. Their hair was caught up in dull efficient hanks that could readily be loosed to let it flow at need. They crossed the moat, as some called it, and walked to a staging area. Nonce guided them; the loom knew where to find what it needed.
When they were clear of other company, Nonce raised a question. “The loom ikon makes me feel sexy as anything. When I carry it in my mouth, I want kissing or oral sex. When I wear it between my breasts, I want to smother a man with them. When I have it near my crotch, I want straight raw penetration."
“Familiarity,” Ennui said.
“Here's the thing: if we're going to have sex with men to pay our passage, where do we carry our ikons? I mean, if I know there'll be sex coming, I should have it near my cleft—but then I won't be able to let him in. If I have it in my mouth I'll want to kiss him—and won't be able to."
She had a point. The issue hadn't come up when they weren't considering sex, but now they were. “We may just have to move them around. But it does suggest that we are doomed to be frustrated, because we can't explain our limitations to strange men.” Ennui had moved her ikon around when having sex with Throe, sometimes holding it next to her cleft until the moment of his approach, then putting it behind her. He was patient, knowing her reason: the closer the ikon, the more intense her pleasure.
“The ikons offer a lot,” Aspect said. “But they have their price."
Ennui concurred. Part of that price was a guilty desire for a man they knew they shouldn't try to seduce.
They started at the fringe of a Brown Chroma zone, where huge golems waited to carry coach-loads of passengers. There were several coaches waiting, as there was a good deal of travel to and from Triumph City.
They started toward the closest. Ennui's dragon seed buzzed, and she knew Aspect's had buzzed also. “Wrong one,"
They turned toward a second, and got buzzed again. It seemed that there was a difference between transports.
Finally the seeds allowed them to approach the most distant of the coaches. It was far from the most impressive; it was small, and its golem looked battered. The man himself was of middle age and unhandsome. But they had learned to trust the seeds.
“Question: who tries first?” Aspect inquired.
“Answer: I will,” Ennui said. “I'm the one who is most nervous about it. If I can do it, you certainly can."
“Impeccable logic."
Ennui approached the brown man. “We are three traveling women who need transport across your zone and others.” She twitched her shoulder so that her robe opened just enough. She was half surprised that it worked correctly the first time. “We have little to offer but the skills of householding, such as cooking, cleaning, or minding children. We don't need any fancy accommodations, and are good workers."
“I have a better idea,” the man said. For a moment Ennui thought she was imagining it, because it was exactly what they had said in rehearsal. But a man was a man, regardless of the Chroma; they were all much alike in certain situations. She could read it in his unguarded mind: the sight of just a portion of her firm breast had set his pulses racing. Sex, it was turning out, was amazingly easy—now that she had the body for it.
She looked up at him with eyes that had been subtly shadowed to look larger and brighter. “Question?” It was the maidenly pretense of ignorance.
“No fault."
She smiled carefully. “But I am beyond youth, surely not of such interest.” Her misbehaving robe fell farther open; she drew it modestly closed after providing the man with a sufficient additional glimpse. His desire had been thoroughly stirred; the lust in his mind was feeding back to her, making her similarly eager.
“You'll do. I am not young either. Deal?"
“Agreed.” And she had done it, to her passing surprise. “But we are three. What of my companions?"
“Let me look at them."
Aspect stepped forward, her robe drawn tight at the waist but hardly concealing the underlying figure. Nonce paced her, requiring no clothing wiles at all, because of her youth. “Introduction,” Aspect said, providing what Ennui had forgotten to do. “I am the woman Speck, and this is my companion the girl No."
“And I am the woman On,” Ennui said.
“I am the man Nocount.” He grimaced. “The one my peers concluded would never amount to much, no account. They were correct."
“We are anonymous,” Ennui said. “At present we are of no more account than you, and satisfied to be so.” This was a sensible qualification, because once he saw any of them nude he would know they were not washwomen drudges. The dragon seed had not buzzed to stop her, as it could have done. She was subtly enlisting his cooperation in maintaining their anonymity.
“I have a notion,” the brown man said, thus encouraged. “It may not appeal to you."
“We need very much to get where we are going,” Aspect said with a hesitant but appealing smile. “We are open to anything within reason."
“I have dreamed of having a bed of lovely women. Several together, all amenable."
“Several?” Aspect asked as if not understanding. Of course she understood quite well; Symbol had mentioned this variant. To a man, the only thing better than a single lovely amenable woman was several of them, at once.
“In my bed at the same time. For the duration of the trip.” Caught up by the vision, he added to the offer. “Food provided. No housework. Just that."
Aspect looked at Ennui, then at Nonce. The other two hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. “It is a bit unusual,” Nonce said, “but we should be able to manage if there is no unkind stuff.” That could have been what the dragon seeds had warned them away from: unkind stuff, which could include sadism or truly ugly sexual tastes.
“No unkind stuff,” the man said quickly. “No pain, no discomfort, just loving."
“And no telling,” Nonce said. For three attractive women in the bed of a homely man would be considerable news.
Nocount hesitated. It was a man's nature to talk about his conquests. “Tell as long ago?"
That was a decent compromise that would keep them anonymous. “Agreed,” the two said together.
“Deal,” Nocount said, and the three of them nodded affirmation.
They entered his coach, and the brown man directed the huge brown golem to carry it carefully across the zone. Of course that was for show; the golem would do it as it always did. By this time it had probably worn a track along its familiar route.
As the coach was lifted and carried, the brown man closed the window shutters and cleared the seats to the side so that the interior became one big bed. Then he put a hand to his brown clothing, and paused. “You first."
He still wasn't quite sure they would do it, despite their agreement. Ennui smiled and undressed in leisurely fashion, knowing that the man wanted to savor every part of his dream. She was pleased to see that he got a masculine reaction, barely masked by his brown trousers; she was being a success as a siren. When she was naked, she lay down on the bed, her legs slightly apart. She was discovering that not only was she able to do this seduction, she was enjoying it. She was flaunting the body she had never had before.
Aspect then did her languorous strip, more artistically than Ennui had managed, causing Nocount's breathing to accelerate. Finally Nonce did hers, at which point the man almost ripped off his own clothing and stood erect in more than one sense. His body was middle aged but clean, fortunately.
The three smiled warmly at Nocount. This was his fantasy, and they were obliging it to the best of their understanding and ability. Ennui realized that it was really a play, with the cast catering to the lead character.
Some choreography, Aspect thought to Ennui. I'll take the head, you take the groin. We'll have to keep our ikons clear of our action areas. When he's done with you, we can change positions.
Action areas: their mouths, breasts, and clefts. An unromantic description, but realistic. Agreement.
Still bemused that they were actually doing it, Ennui found herself quite ready. This was a man's fantasy, but she was reveling in her newfound capacity to be a stranger man's dream. They kept their ikons always on their bodies, never in their clothes, because they couldn't afford to be separated from them. It wasn't just a matter of the protection the ikons provided them; it was that each ikon was incalculably valuable in itself and could not be risked. They owed it to Havoc, Gale, and the loom. What of Nonce?