Zombie Lover (15 page)

"I don't understand," she said. "Can you stand up, so I can get these off?"

"Chameleon, please! We can't do this."

She paused. "We can't? But it's so much more fun when we're young."

"Chameleon, I love you, but I'm not the Bink who lives here. It would be wrong to—"

She began to get the message of rejection. Her eyes turned moist, making him feel unbearably guilty. "You don't want to?"

How could he explain? The smart Chameleon would have understood the moment she saw their age differences, but this was the stupid one. Alternate worlds within worlds were beyond her limited comprehension.

He tried another tack. "Chameleon, suppose I was someone else who just looked like Bink but wasn't him. Would you still want to do this?"

She struggled with the concept, but it was too much. So she kissed him instead.

Bink gave himself up for lost. He still felt it was wrong, but he loved and desired her so much that he couldn't fight it any longer. He knew she was completely innocent of bad intent; she loved him and wanted him, and that was the whole of her present understanding. Would her opposite phase be angry, when she came into play? Or intrigued?

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Chameleon got back to work on his trousers. Bink offered no further resistance.

Then the door opened and a man entered. "Hello."

"Hello, Bink." Chameleon said without looking, recognizing the voice.

Then, slowly, the realization sank in. She paused. Then her head turned.

There was Bink, thirty two years old, her true husband. "I had some lucky breaks, and managed to get back a day early," he said.

"Yes, I know," she agreed. "We're—" She paused again, her head slowly turning back to the Bink on the bed.

"Yes, there are two of us," Bink-21 said.

"So I see," Bink-32 agreed.

Chameleon's head turned back and forth between them. "I don't understand."

Now Bink-21 could explain again, knowing that there was someone present who would understand. "1 am the Bink from Xanth. I am visiting Ptero in a dream. I'm not really here. Except in spirit. So I think I should turn the bed over to the real Bink at this point."

But now Bink-32 protested. "I'm the dream?"

"I'm sure you're real," Bink-21 said. "But my image of you is in a dream. Just as I'm real, but not really here. Since Chameleon is a dream too. she's yours."

"She is a dream," Bink-32 agreed.

"A perfect dream. And I love her. But I have my real Chameleon back on Xanth."

"There's another woman?" Chameleon asked plaintively.

The two Binks exchanged a glance. "No." Bink-32 said. "There is only you, Chameleon. And two of me. So one of us will go, and the other will be with you."

She smiled. "That's nice."

Bink-21 got up and hastily donned his shirt. "I think my talent is operating. It will not allow me to be harmed by magic. Since at least one of us is me, the other can't do anything harmful to the one. So it enabled you to get home in time."

"Yes," Bink-32 agreed. He took off his shirt.

"We must talk, when we can," Bink-21 said.

"Yes. Soon." Bink-32 lay on the bed.

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Pit-RS ANTHONI

As Bink-21 went out the door Chameleon was resuming where she had left off Her contusion had been abated That would not have been the case with a smarter woman Both Binks understood that Neither could stand to cause her the slightest pain He closed the door behind him and headed for the stairs

He had done the right thing Yet there was that in him that almost wished that his other self had been too late

He turned a corner and saw something just vanishing into a chamber, as if hiding He remembered the suspicion that something might be following them Could it be doing so even here in Castle Roogna7 No surely it was just a castle servant getting out of the way, or maybe a shy ghost

Downstairs he found two Dors and one Irene in animated dialogue Foi a moment he couldn't tell them apart Then one Dor spied him and smiled "How was it, father9 '

"I didn't—I mean—"

Suddenly that Dor and Irene burst out laughing "Fooled you," he said "We're the natives '

Bink looked at the other Dor, who nodded Then he saw that the natives like Bink-32 and Chameleon-27, were older He was sixty six instead of fifty five, and she was sixty five He shouldn't have been fooled "You aged well," he admitted

Then two Dolphs came down the wall, with one matronly Electra and two stunning young women The women spied Bink and charged him together One was a redhead with green eyes and bright clothes, the other a dark haired, dark eyed creature in black clothing They embiaced him from either side Who were they'

' What a handsome young man you are," the redhead said, kissing his right cheek

1 Yes, just right for us,' the jet blackhead said, nibbling on his left ear

Finally he put it together
 
Dolph—Electra—eleven years hence— twin seven yeai-old daughters who would now be eighteen
  
Each "Dawn and Eve1 ' he exclaimed
    
My great grandchildren

They laughed togethei ' Aw, he caught on. Dawn said "Now we can t show him this' She leaned forward just enough to provide a glimpse ol her fine cleavage inside a bright halter She had evidently inherited an aspect of Chameleon

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"Or this," Eve agreed lifting her short skirt just enough to show the edge of a dark panty on a firm bottom There was another aspect

"Girls'" Electra cried, appalled
 
"Behave yourselves1"

They laughed again, hardly chastised "What brings you here, Great Grandpa9" Dawn asked innocently

"If it's not to sneak peeks at your demure descendants," Eve added mischievously

"It's to talk with the Zombie Master," Bink said "The traveling one" Then he paused with another realization "But you already know this, because you have just touched my flesh and my clothing, and your talents are to know anything about anything animate or inanimate ''

"Shux," Dawn said, pouting cutely "He's getting harder to tease "

"But maybe worth the challenge," Eve said

"You girls were sheer mischief when you were seven," Bink said "I think you're worse now "

"Thank you," they said together, blushing with pleasure

"But we shall have to let our visitors go on," Irene said "Before their trail gets cold The Zombie Master didn't pause here long, and he's still a day ahead of them "

"Where did he go9" Bink asked

"To Pyramid," Dawn said

"We've been there," Eve said

"With a nice faun," Dawn agred

"With whom we really had fun," Eve concluded

Electra looked about ready to explode "Teasing," Dawn said quickly "Nothing more "

"Unfortunately," Eve said

"But we helped him save us all from dread marginahzation "

"And clued him in on his true love Mare Imbri "

"So would you like a pair of guides9" Dawn asked, inhaling showing a pair

"Really friendly guides who can show you— ' Eve spied a deadly glance coming her way from her mother, and changed course before it reached her skirt "The lay of the land9"

"What would your boyfriends think of that'" Irene inquired musingly

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PIERS ANTHOW

The girls instantly sobered. "We'll just tell you what to expect,"

Dawn said.

"Each triangular face of Pyramid is a different color," Eve said. "When you cross from one to another, your orientation is still fixed by the first, so you can no longer stand up."

"You can get help to change," Dawn said. "But whoever helps you gets bigger, and you get smaller."

"This is weird," Dolph said.

"But I'm sure we'll manage," Bink said.

"And if you happen to go on to Torus, that's where doing a favor makes you love the one you do it for," Dawn said.

"So you have to exchange favors within the hour, to avoid love trouble," Eve said. "If you want to."

"But what about time and geography?" Bink asked.

"The rules are different for each world," Dawn explained.

"So is the terrain, and the people," Eve said.

Dor shook his head. "This may become more of an experience

than we anticipated."

"We can provide you with a place to sleep, where your bodies will

be safe," Dor-66 said.

"Will we need them, since we're already dreaming?"
 
Dor-55

asked.

"Oh, I suppose not. But first we should check with King Ivy." "How did Ivy come to be king, and not Grey or Dolph?" Bink

asked.

"The others were lost during the marginalization, so it fell to her," Dor-66 said. "After that, it seemed easier just to leave it that way."

"Here she comes now," Electra said.

Indeed, a forty-year-old woman wearing a crown was approaching. She did look like an older version of Sink's granddaughter.

"King Ivy," Dor-66 said. "These are three visitors from Xanth, who are here in a dream. Grandfather Bink, who has been severely youthened. Father Dor, eleven years younger than I am, and Son Dolph, similarly younger than our Dolph."

"I am pleased to meet you," Ivy said gravely. "You all seem oddly familiar."

"So do you," Dolph-24 said.

"This will get in my way."
 
Ivy said, removing her crown and

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handing it to her father, Dor-66. Then she stepped into Dolph-24 and hugged him closely. "I love you. little brother." After that she hugged Dor-55 similarly, and finally Bink. "You seem even younger. Grandpa," she murmured in his ear.

"I was just rejuvenated," he said. "It still seems strange." Ivy stepped back, took back her crown, donned it, and became suitably sober again. "You will want to go on to my sister Ida." she said. "Please come this way." She evidently had been briefed on their business.

They followed her to the Tapestry chamber. There was Princess Ida, with her moon—and sure enough, it was the shape of a little pyramid, with four triangular faces.

"These are the Xanth originals," Ivy said. "They need to locate the Zombie Master."

"I will be glad to help," Ida said. "The Zombie Master's experience clarified the way. You will not need to sleep, as you are already asleep in your own realm. Simply think small, and you will fade from here. If you need to find my next derivative, she lives on the blue face."