Air Apparent (18 page)

Ride the centaur? Suppose she knew his identity, and this was a trap to get him on her so that she could carry him helplessly back to the Factory? She had given no indication that she knew, but of course she wouldn’t. Not until her trap sprung.

Yet if she didn’t know, that would give him a far better chance to discover her weapon. He would have to gamble if he wanted to win. And riding on her could be a rather pleasant experience. He decided to gamble. “Excellent,” he said, evincing no doubt.

“Good enough,” Debra said. “Just let me flick you light.” She stepped up close to him, turned about, and flicked him with her tail.

Suddenly he felt astonishingly light. That was the magic of winged centaurs, he remembered. They did not fly by powerful wingbeats, but by lightening themselves and their burdens. It was a convenient system.

“Now mount,” she reminded him.

He did so, putting one hand on her back and jumping. He sailed right over her. She reached up and caught his foot as he passed. “Easy does it,” she murmured as she set him down on her back.

“Thank you,” he said, embarrassed. “I haven’t done this before.”

“Understandable. Now hold on to my mane.”

He took hold of her luxurious hair. “Got it, I think.” Her mane was continuous with her beautiful hair. He wanted to stroke it. In fact he wished he could reach around her torso and stroke something else. What was stirring him?

She spread her wings and flapped them as she leaped into the air. They were thus readily airborne. She spiraled up until they were well above the forest. “Now where to?”

“It is floating over the eastern Gap Chasm,” he said. “Perhaps anchored there for the time being.”

“Anchored in the air,” she said, laughing.

He liked it when she laughed. He wished he could see her front, which surely shook in a really interesting manner. At the same time he knew this was flirting with destruction, because she was the agent of his doom.

And he realized that this might be no coincidence. She might have been crafted by the Factory to be exactly the kind of maiden he liked. So that he would be attracted, and come to her, so she could take him in. So he was in more than one kind of danger.

Yet why should they have sent an underaged maiden? It griped him at times, but he did honor the Adult Conspiracy to Keep Interesting Things from Children. If she was supposed to seduce him into mischief, she should have been of age. It wasn’t as if the nymphs or demoness had had any trouble on that score. Surely they had adult maidens to send. It didn’t seem to make sense. That bothered him, because he was sure the Factory was not being nonsensical. Factory folk were always supremely programmed. That’s why they couldn’t abide his randomness.

Unless she was merely an advance scout, sent to locate him and report him to the Factory, which would then send out a competent agent to haul him in. Maybe they didn’t want to waste the time of a full-fledged agent, so wanted to make sure of him first.

Yet the demon had said she was the agent. Could the demon have been wrong? Or was the answer incomplete? Could she be older than she claimed, the seeming youth a mere cover to conceal her real nature? Maybe to keep other men from bothering her until she could orient on the right one, and then turn older, reeling him in? He didn’t dare gamble. He would have to treat her like the real agent, until he knew for sure.

“You became suddenly quiet,” Debra remarked. “Did I laugh inappropriately? I did not mean to give offense.”

Which was an entirely appropriate response for an innocent girl. Which made him think he should try to verify the state of her innocence. The real agent would be anything but innocent. “I had an inappropriate thought,” he said.

“Oh? I don’t think I understand.”

“When you laughed, I wished I could have seen your front.”

She considered. “I still don’t—” She paused. “Or maybe I do.” She blushed, her entire human section turning red, as far as he could see.

“And I wish I could see it now,” he said.

“You are embarrassing me something awful,” she said, the red deepening.

“Centaurs are not embarrassed by natural functions, and male interest in the fronts of females is natural.”

The blush became a flush that heated her skin; he could feel its radiation. “I am not really a centaur. Please, I don’t want you thinking of me like that.”

She was certainly innocent. He doubted any person could fake such color.

Then it came to him: she didn’t know she was an agent. So she really was young and innocent.

“I apologize,” he said. “I shouldn’t have told you my thought.”

“But I don’t want you to lie to me.” Her color was starting to fade.

And indeed he did not want to lie to her. He wanted her to trust him, and he wanted to be trustworthy for her. He hated the fact that it was necessary to deceive her. He would have to step carefully.

“You appear to be a young grown woman,” he said. “Or filly, as the case may be. Grown men have private thoughts about grown women, finding them attractive. But I know you are several years short of grown, so I should not have expressed my thought. I apologize, and will try not to do it again.”

“Centaurs don’t honor the Adult Conspiracy,” she said. “And I’m from Mundania, where most young folk know what’s in it even if they’re not supposed to. So you really didn’t say anything wrong.”

Yet she had blushed furiously. She might know the content, but she wasn’t used to it. “Still, it was unkind, and I regret it.” And he did.

“It wasn’t even unkind,” she said. “It just caught me off guard. I never thought—as a centaur I am better formed than I was as a human, so it didn’t occur to me that—even though I have caught others looking. So—Oh, I’m all confused!”

“That’s why the Conspiracy exists. To protect young folk like you from concepts they aren’t yet equipped to handle. Your reaction proves it. I’m sorry I was so unpleasant.”

“But I did ask. You did say it was inappropriate. So it was really my fault.”

She was getting to him. “Don’t say that! I was trampling on your innocence. I’m sorry and I wish I could take it back.” The weird thing was that he meant it. She was either a phenomenal actress, or truly as innocent as she seemed.

“No, I need to learn how to handle things. I’m sorry I blushed. I’ll try not to, next time.”

“There won’t be a next time.”

She paused, then shrugged. He wished he could see that, too, from the front. “I don’t quite know how to say this, so I’ll surely mess it up. But I’d like there to be a—a next time.” Her blush was returning.

He was surprised. “You want me to say something crude again?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I hate it, but I like it. I know that’s crazy.”

She wanted to come across as a girl, but womanly instincts were manifesting. Adults could handle their mature urges, while teens tended to misplay them. It was the classic struggle of teendom. Adults were not supposed to take advantage of it. Yet he was sorely tempted. There was just something about her that drew him in, making him like her. That might be cynically crafted, but it nevertheless worked. He cursed himself for falling into a trap he could plainly see, but continued falling. Still, he temporized. “I shouldn’t.”

“Do you really want to—to see my front?” she asked timidly. “When I laugh?”

What was left but the truth? “Yes.”

She half folded her wings and glided down toward the ground. “Then think of something funny to say after we land.”

“I don’t understand.”

“To make me laugh. While you’re watching.” Her blush intensified again. “Oh, I’m so disastrously naughty! If I had panties I’d be flashing them at you. And I don’t even know you.”

She wanted to impress him. Which meant that she was as eager to have a relationship as he was, probably for no better reason. She was attracted to him, as he was to her. Even though there could be nothing between them, and not merely because of her age and species, and his need to avoid the trap she represented.

“We hardly know each other,” he agreed, mainly because it was the right thing for a proper man to say.

“Yes. That makes it worse.” She came down in a glade, and her legs ran as she touched the ground, so that there would not be a sudden stop.

“This is crazy,” he protested. “For all you know, I could be a—a really bad man.”

“There’s something about bad men,” she agreed. “Maybe you’ll show me what it is.”

He dismounted and faced her. As a centaur, her human portion was significantly higher than he was. “I can’t think of anything funny to say. This is dangerously serious.”

“That’s hilarious!” she said, laughing. “I think I’m hysterical.” She continued laughing, unable to stop.

The effect was every bit as impressive as he had anticipated. He feared this was disaster, but couldn’t help himself. “Get down on your knees,” he said.

“Crazy!” she said, folding all four knees. That brought her head down parallel to his.

He stepped up, put his arms around her bare torso, drew her close against him, and kissed her.

She kissed him back, fiercely. The passion of it flared, encompassing them both. They remained there, timelessly embraced.

At last they fell apart. The Factor sat on the ground before her, not trusting his balance. She remained kneeling, her mane and hair flaring as if electrically charged. He saw the swirling hearts sailing up and away, a dissipating cloud.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said.

“What is it?”

“We have entered a dangerous new dimension.”

“What is it?” she repeated.

“It’s love. Forbidden love.”

“Forbidden love,” she echoed. “I never expected it.” She pondered half a moment. “But why is it forbidden? I don’t mean because I’m too young. Time will take care of that, and I may be only thirteen, but I know love when I feel it. Or because I’m a centaur. I’ll be a girl again soon enough. Or because you’re a stranger. You aren’t any more. I don’t care about any of that. There’s something else, much worse. I know it, I feel it. What is it?”

He would have to tell her the whole truth, though it damned him. Because he had abruptly fallen in love, and he couldn’t deceive her any more. “You won’t like this.”

“I can’t stand not to know.”

“It will force us to separate, probably forever. It might be better to hide it, so we can be together, at least for a while.”

“I love you,” she said simply. “Nothing can change that.”

“I love you,” he said. “And that is part of the problem.”

“You’re married!” she said with sudden alarm.

“No! I have been with women—well, nymphs and a demoness—but you’re all I want, henceforth.”

“So you’re experienced. I want that, because I’m not. If that’s the worst of it—” She paused. “But it isn’t, is it. You know I truly won’t like it.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me anyway. But kiss me again, first.”

Now he laughed, ruefully. He got up, stepped up, embraced her, and kissed her again. This time the floating little hearts were so thick he could feel them brushing his shirt and her bare back. When they separated, after a brief eternity, he saw that one heart had gotten tangled in her mane. And in his own hair. After a moment the two hearts managed to free themselves, came together, and merged into one larger heart which floated away on the breeze.

He sat down and talked. “I am the Random Factor.”

“The what?”

She didn’t even know of him! “I worked at the Factory some time ago, but I was random, and messed up their business. So they confined me in the dungeon cell of Castle Maidragon, where I wreaked random magic on anyone who opened my cell door. I had no choice; I was cursed to do it, so that no one would try to free me.”

“Why didn’t you simply escape when it was open?”

“It wasn’t the lock on the door that held me. It was the enchantment. But then I randomly reversed myself and escaped. I knew they would send an agent after me, to confine me again. You are that agent.”

“I am not!” she protested angrily.

“Where were you last year?”

“In Mundania. I didn’t like it so I came to Xanth.”

“Exactly how did you do that?”

She considered, surprised. “I don’t know. I just—found myself here, not long ago.”

“Doesn’t it seem more logical that your memory of Mundania is artificial, and that you came into existence when you appeared in Xanth?”

She started to protest, but then her mouth fell open in surprise. “It does.”

“It is your job to locate and capture me, so I can be confined again. Which means we can’t be together, because either we’ll be apart because I’m fleeing you, or because I’m confined in a dungeon cell.”

“But I wouldn’t do you any harm! I couldn’t!”

“You won’t have a choice.”

“Of course I have a choice. No one can make me do something I really don’t want to do.”

“You have been conditioned to think that. But when the time comes, your innocent-girl persona will fade and you will do what you are programmed to do.”

“Horrible thought!”

“It is why I came to you. I had to find out what your secret weapon was, so I could nullify or escape it. I fear I have discovered it, but not escaped it.”

“Love,” she said. “We were supposed to fall in love.”

“Yes. But that would be just the precursor. That will keep me close to you, or bring me back to you if I flee. There has to be something else, as obviously you have not bound me yet in any physical manner.”

“There’s something,” she said thoughtfully. “Sometimes I have an awareness and a sense of direction, as though there’s somewhere I should go. But then it passes.”

“It’s when I do my random magic. You can sense that, and know where it occurs. But what are you supposed to do?”

“I think it has something to do with my curse.”

“Your curse?”

“When I wear a bra, and any man hears my name, he wants to come take it off me. To de-bra me. But I don’t know how that could affect you.”

“I’m a man. I’d want to take it off you.”

She smiled ruefully. “And I’d let you. You’ve already seen my breasts. You’re seeing them now.”

“And they fascinate me,” he agreed. “Maybe I’m supposed to touch them, and that will invoke the confinement spell.”