Three novel nymphs, p.28
Three Novel Nymphs, page 28
“You’re not supposed to know. We mask our minds, pretending to be dumb animals. That enables us to get along with the Droms anonymously.”
This was curious, quite apart from their fundamental differences. “Why?”
“If they knew we are as smart as they are, they might see us as dangerous enemies and try to eradicate us. That would be pointless war. It is better to get along and track their activities, especially in this time of flux.”
Fascinating! “It is that flux that brought us to this galaxy and this planet. We are trying to find a way to ameliorate it, as I mentioned before.”
“Then we are on the same side. We can handle wind, but recently it has become so extreme that we fear the progression.”
“So do we. The mischief is not limited to this world or ours; it spans two galaxies. We fear doom for the entire region if we do not act soon to ease it.”
“Then we want to help. What can we do?” He believed her because he was aware telepathy did not lie; she believed him similarly.
“For now, return to the Droms as animals. We will honor your secret. Two of our number will remain here for a time to control the wind. I will let them know, and they will contact you without telling the Droms your nature.”
“This is not sufficient. What have we to gain apart from local convenience?”
“Respect,” Knight Knife said. “That is what a warrior craves most.”
“Who are you?” Seven demanded. That led to an explanation of the other two companions.
“I would like to have associates like you,” Seven said. “So would the other steeds. It would enable us to establish relations with quite diverse creatures.”
Nydia stepped in. “Wanda and Knight are unique entities, not available elsewhere. But I can make a plea to Anthem’s home anthill to provide interested telepathic ants for such purpose. Some might agree.”
That did it. “We will cooperate. I will signal my associates now.” Seven raised his lens and flashed to the other steeds, who flashed back. They might not be telepathic, but they had ready means of communication with each other.
That reminded her. “You conceal your sapience from the Droms by acting like mere animals. But you also eluded Rob’s mind check. He should have picked up on your intelligence when we passed you before. How did you hide it?”
“There are telepaths in the Earth Zone. We feared they would read our minds, even from a distance, and tell the Droms. So we practice constant mind shielding.”
“Fascinating,” Rob said. “We are going there next. We must shield our minds also. Will you teach us how?”
“For the sake of camaraderie, yes. It is simply a matter of creating an animal or otherwise ignorant persona, then normally residing in it. The key is to do it routinely because telepaths don’t warn you they are coming. Their power becomes useless if you put on a shield. You will have to practice until it becomes your default state. You cannot afford to carelessly expose your true minds.”
“We shall do so,” Rob agreed. “I have not encountered mind shielding before, perhaps because others did not know it was possible, and I have had free rein in their minds. Some of their secrets are intriguing.”
“Surely so,” Seven agreed with an alien chuckle. “I would love to spy on the thoughts of lovers in action.”
“It can be interesting,” Rob agreed.
“But with shielding, the lovers could prevent your snooping. We ants do not get spied upon.”
“How do you know?”
“Our specialty is contact telepathy, as we lack the minds to broadcast. But we are aware of external telepathic fields when they touch us.”
“And a companion ant could do that for me? Warn me so I know to clamp down harder and hide?”
“Yes.”
“This excites me. I thank you for that prospect.”
“This intrigues me too,” Rob said. “To spy without being spied on.”
“You will want an ant, too, when we return home.”
“I will indeed. Thank you, Anthem.”
“And we thank you for your cooperation, Seven,” Nydia said before anyone could think to explore her own secrets. “This may save our mission.”
That was it. Nydia dismounted, and Seven did not attack her. They had become, if not friends, business associates. She walked back to the corral. “They will return,” she called. Indeed, the steeds were already moving toward the corral.
The corral superintendent approached her. “What did you do?” he flashed.
“I was able to persuade him that the steeds were better off under your care. They like being fed and protected. It’s better than being feral, especially in this bad wind. Treat them right, and they will behave. In fact, you will hardly need the corral.”
His amazement was evident, but he could not argue with the result.
Nydia glanced at Aery. “Are you and Moonroe amenable to remaining here to pacify the desert winds until we complete our mission with the Demoness?”
“We figured on it,” Moonroe said.
“Then I think we are ready to move on. You can be our liaison with this zone.” She paused a fraction of a moment. “I will brief you on details before we depart.” Nydia shared the specifics of the private deal with the steeds, and of mind shielding.
Chapter 12
Minds
The boundary between the Wind Zone and the Earth Zone was formidable. Volcanoes lined it, viciously spewing sparks, smoke, ash, and lava. Clouds of burning gases drifted seemingly randomly. The ground shook constantly from minor, medium, and major quakes. There seemed to be no safe way through.
“My turn,” Eartha said. “But there will need to be stages.”
“Stages?” Nydia asked. “Can’t you just make it stop in a channel across, as Aery did for the wind?”
“I can. But the terrain will be rough, and the ground will still be burning hot for days. Merely halting it will not suffice. My power is moving rock, not cooling it.”
“And we don’t have Aery or Flood here to summon water to cool it,” Ecstasy said.
“Makes no matter,” Eartha said confidently. “I will temporarily divert a river.”
They watched, impressed, as Eartha signaled the terrain beside the boundary. The ground heaved and formed a massive channel leading to a nearby river. The water coursed into it thirstily, appreciating the new route. It seemed to have no loyalty to its old groove. It splashed with abandon down into the boundary region.
There it sizzled into a swirling cloud of droplets and steam. Ouch! Nydia wondered whether that was an analogy for the human condition, when those who paid no attention to the morrow or the consequences of their actions abruptly ran lethally afoul of unanticipated effects. Like the ogre who had thought to tease Noletta and had gotten his butt toasted.
“Good analogy,” Rob said in her mind.
That caused another idea. “Have you been spying on all my thoughts?” she asked with dismay.
“Only the interesting or useful ones. Most thoughts are like chaff, merely cluttering the scene, of little use to anyone not in the host body.”
She suppressed a surge of irritation at the notion of her thoughts being chaff. He was, after all, a handy member of the Quest. He would have to tune out the routine thoughts of a group of people, lest the mindscape be hopelessly cluttered. Still, she was concerned about her privacy, something she appreciated more as a woman than she had as a nymph. “Like what?”
“When I first nighted with Eartha, I wanted to be sure to do it correctly. I am not human, and neither is she, as you know, despite our borrowed human bodies. We have both observed human activities over the centuries, and knew the words and mechanics, but that’s not the same as doing it ourselves. There are nuances. The figurines have reactions that can be evoked, but without practice they can be clumsy. She wanted to get it right too. So I read your memory of your first intimate encounter with a male, which I recovered from your buried experiences as a nymph, and used that as the template. It worked perfectly.”
Nydia remembered the volcanoes erupting in unison and felt a certain envy again. It had indeed worked. Her annoyance at having her most intimate experiences spied on eased; he did have a point. How else were two completely nonhuman creatures to emulate that most personal interaction? “Point made.”
“You also enabled me to have my first experience of love, reading your reactions with Vol. It’s a glorious feeling. I may be a serpent and she an Element, but we have come to love each other in our fashions. Now I truly know what it is all about, thanks to you.”
Surely a rare compliment. Her dawning ire drifted away like an untethered cloud. She had no case. They returned to watching the river action.
The water heedlessly kept flowing despite the fate awaiting it. One thing about a river was that there was always more liquid where the present fluid came from. The cloud of mist grew big and pulsed with annoyance, but the ground beneath it was reluctantly cooling, and puddles were beginning to form and hang on. The stream of fresh water was coursing farther before vaporizing. Meanwhile, Vol delved into his stores of lost items and produced pairs of heat-resistant open shoes for everyone so that they would not need to gamble on their footing.
Finally there was a damp corridor across the boundary area. They took it, walking in the wettest spots, because those were now beneath the boiling point. The shoes helped.
They came to a cave in the side of a coagulated lava flow. Vinia gazed into it. “Green,” she said. “The path goes inside. The other paths are chancy to bad.”
“There has to be a reason,” Noe said.
“A reason to divert our route instead of getting the bleep across this dangerous terrain?” Oakley asked skeptically. “That is hardly obvious.”
“We have learned to trust the green,” Ecstasy reminded him. “Obviously.”
The others looked at Nydia. It was her decision again. She hated that aspect of her position, but was as usual stuck with it. Leadership, it seemed, was all about decisions. Her nymphly past had been all about performance of One Thing, a much easier process. “We do trust the green. We will check this out and move on efficiently when we know the reason for the green.”
Nobody argued. They trusted her leadership more than it perhaps deserved. Vinia led the way into the cave, Noe pacing beside her, and Nydia following. But she shared Oakley’s doubt. Why delay their journey to inspect a temporary cave, surely empty, when they really needed to get quickly to the safety of the next zone?
Rob answered her mentally. “Because this cave is shielded against telepathy. We need to learn mental shielding, and we daren’t do it openly. The green knows.”
Another excellent point. Her mind, if not hurting, was suffering some stretching as she learned unobvious things. “Thank you for that clarification.” She was trying not to be too grudging.
“I am still learning. What is the appropriate way to alleviate a human person’s annoyance?”
She reminded herself that he was not human. He really didn’t know the nuances. “Render an apology.”
“I apologize for spying on your mind without your permission. I will try to avoid doing that in the future.”
He did mean well. “No, keep doing it, because you will need to emulate being human, and won’t be able to ask permission at every turn. You have to learn by observing inside and outside other minds.”
“Thank you.” His mental tone was contrite, and she knew it was not pretense.
“You are welcome,” she said sincerely. She found she was liking him increasingly as another nonhuman person.
“And I like you, as a non-serpentine person.”
The cave opened into a fair-sized chamber with room for them all. It was warm, but not hot; the river water had done its job as it evaporated. That was part of the magic of water: it cooled what it departed from. There was also some light leaking in from outside, so they could see each other.
Now was the time. “Your attention, please,” Nydia said to the group. “We are here because we have a very private bleep to consider.” She paused. “Adult Conspiracy, get the bleep out of my dialog! This is no business of yours.” Lo, it retreated. It seemed that here in another galaxy, the Conspiracy had less power, and could be backed off when it was being even more foolish than usual. She took a breath and resumed. “… a very private matter to consider. We are about to enter a zone where there are telepaths—that is, mind readers. They may want to peer into our most secret thoughts, like how our natural functions are performing or what we simply prefer to keep private, like a passing unkind thought about a friend or the savor of our last kiss.” She paused to give the assorted looks of dismay time to appear on stray faces. “Our mission is important. We don’t want others messing with our minds and maybe fouling up the process. So we need to be able to maintain our privacy.” She paused again to give the looks of agreement time to show themselves. “This cave is naturally shielded against stray telepathy, like a dam against water. So here, while we have intellectual privacy, we need to practice making personal shields against mental intrusion so that when we resume our journey, the alien telepaths will not be able to sneak into our minds. The secret is this: to assume roles we choose and play them so well that no outsiders will even suspect that we are not what we seem to be.” One more pause to give the thoughtful expressions time. “Are there any questions?”
Vinia had one. “What about us juveniles?”
Nydia smiled. “That should be easy. You must become so clearly a child, mentally, that there cannot be even the hint of a suspicion that maybe you know or suspect anything a child should not know. That you have no idea at all what fauns and nymphs do so gleefully in the Retreat or how baby orders are sent to the storks or what bleeps mean literally. That you are not even curious about such dull things. That all you care about is getting home so you can guzzle tsoda pop and boot rear and eat fresh cookies all day and never get sick or even full.” Then she thought of something else. “Your colored paths, especially, should be completely hidden. Only your talent of telekinesis should exist.”
Vinia’s smile became inscrutable, then jumped to Woe Betide. “Got it. Just be completely ourselves.” Bits of the smile touched several of the adults before fading out. The Conspiracy might bleep, but it could not erase fundamental understanding.
Now Moonroe had a question. “How do we practice mind control? We need more than just trying to be the popular notion of ourselves. We’ve been doing that all along, unguardedly.”
Nydia glanced at Rob. “You are our general telepath. Do you have advice?” She knew he would be ready because of their dialog with Seven Steed. Facilitating things for one’s associates was another aspect of leadership she was cultivating.
He nodded. “I have been pondering the matter. I think that we should try a play with assigned or chosen roles. If we become so persuasive in roles that obviously are not authentic that we can fool others, then we will have the technique to play the roles of ourselves well enough to deceive the alien telepaths. We shall be consummate actors, believing that we are what we seem to be. What we need is a challenging play with many distinct characters to practice on.”
“You are already playing the role of a human man,” Eartha said.
“But could I fool you if you did not know my nature? I need practice myself if I want to fool another telepath. Minds don’t deceive each other.”
“The play’s the thing,” she agreed.
“That seems apt,” Nydia said. “Does anyone have such a play in mind?”
A silence swept in and took over. No one had such a play in or out of mind.
It was time for more leadership. What a multifaceted thing it was! Nydia looked at the demoness. “Lilith, you have been active in the affairs of the human kind since the dawn of history. You have seen things the rest of us have no inkling of. Do you have memories that can be adapted?”
The demoness looked startled. She, for once, had been caught off guard. “Um, let me think.” In three-quarters of a moment, she nodded to herself. “Maybe Gilgamesh.” She looked around as a wave of blankness crossed most faces. “He was a Sumerian king with whom I had relations, back when there was more magic in Mundania. A good guy, but he got arrogant and arbitrary, and the people petitioned to the Lord of Heaven for relief from his tyranny. That was a wakeup call for him. Then his life became complicated.” She continued with details, describing a complex network of interactions involving a number of people and creatures.
“This will do for our purpose,” Nydia decided. “We shall now all choose characters in this history to emulate—first come, first served. Do not announce your choices; merely think them, and Rob will let you know if someone else got there first. We have to trust him to keep our secrets as he has been doing all along. Your purpose is to emulate your chosen character so perfectly that no outsider will realize that it is an act, and no insider—that is, the rest of us—will know who is animating it. At the end, when the play has run its course, we will present a list of all the characters and try to guess who played which role. The winners will be the ones who fool everyone; the losers will be those who fool no one. Most of us will probably be in between, neither complete winners nor losers but imperfect to varying extents. Then the winners will coach the losers until they can do it too. We all need to be winners in the end; our mission and our lives may just depend on it.”
This time, the look that passed among them was serious and somewhat nervous. This might seem like a game, but aspects were deadly.
Woe Betide had a question. “Can we children play grownup parts?”
Nydia smiled. “If you believe you can fool adults about your true identities, you’re welcome to try. But you may wind up as losers because of your ignorance of what the Adult Conspiracy has hidden from you.”
