Zombie Lover (21 page)

Dolph looked at the others, who were similarly blank. "I guess we don't know that faun. But we know that Mare Imbri became a tree nymph and is happy. And Dawn and Eve seem to have boyfriends now."

Ida smiled. "I think you have answered my question. Now I will tell you what I learned about Torus. On that world, the giving of favors does not change a person's size, but incurs a burden of emotion. The giver comes to like or even love the recipient. So you will want to be very careful."

"That is a good caution," Dor said. "We shall be careful, even if this is a dream."

114
     
PIERS ANTHONY

"I think you would not care to be bound into love with a dream figure you hardly knew "

"Agreed " Dor said
 
"Especially since we are all married "

"1 understand that my analog on Torus lives on an island in a lake,

much as I do "

"He probably went to her,'1 Dolph said
  
"Because he's looking

for a zombie world "

"Yes
 
I hope he finds it "

Then they linked hands and focused on Torus Soon they were flying toward it, seeing its geography It was weird, because its mountains and lakes and forests and fields wrapped all around it, even on the side facing inward It seemed to Dolph that it must be really odd living there, and being able to look up beyond the sky and see the rest of that world

Dor turned to Dolph "Maybe we can simplify things, if you become a roc now, and fly across instead of landing "

"Great idea1 Grab onto my feet" Dolph changed, and they clung to his feet He leveled out as he approached the surface, peering down to search for the glowing footprints

Soon he saw them, and followed them immediately to a lake, and an island Just like that, they had found the place

But he also saw another faint stimng, as if something watching them while trying to remain hidden Yet how could anything be following them from world to world9 Dolph pumped his wings and flew faster, to make sure to leave it well behind

He landed before a nice little house with a pleasant garden
 
The others got off his feet, and he changed back to human form The footprints led up to the house Ida came out Her moon was a little cone
 
"What, more visitors0"

she inquired

' We are looking for Jonathan, the Zombie Master," Dor said "We are from his world, and need to talk to him We believe he has

gone on to Cone "

"He has," she agreed
   
'He promised to tell me about it, when he

returns ''

"May we have your permission to go there too'" 'Oh
 
I don't own Cone' I am merely its location Why don't you lust go there
 
without exchanging any favors with me'

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"That may be best," Dor agreed

The linked hands again, and focused on Cone In half a moment they were on their way, becoming small, falling toward it They were getting better at this

Dolph assumed the roc bird form, and earned the others on his feet while he searched for the trail Soon enough he spied it

But he couldn't follow it from the air, because it disappeared beneath a dense forest So he came down for a landing at the edge of that forest Soon the three of them were afoot again

The trees were huge They stared up, awed The trunks gnarled upward, intersecting each other, sometimes spiralmg around each other, forming dense knots of wood halfway between the ground and the distant crowns And on these knots were houses It seemed that the natives were tree dwellers

A creature spied them and flew down It looked like a dragon, but it had feathery wings like those of a harpy, and the head of a goblin It landed nearby and stared at them
  
"Who the AAAA are you'" it demanded

Dolph bristled He assumed the form of a sphinx, because it was larger than the challenger and could also speak with a human voice "Who wants to know9"

This evidently impressed the creature, for its tone moderated "I am Drarphn, a dragon-harpy-goblm crossbreed "

"You must be very unusual " 'No, I'm ordinary
 
We are all crossbreeds here
 
So pay up "

"Pay what1"

"The thumb tax, of course One blurse for each thumb "

"Blurse'"

"Don't you know anything9 A blessing-curse Blurse Something useful that still sticks you with its point If you want to enter this forest, all of you must pay "

Dolph looked at Dor and Bmk "We have six thumbs between us How many blurses do we have9"

"Burn his wings oft so he can grow clean new ones," a rock said

"That's one " Drarphn agreed

"It is9 I mean, for sure " Dolph knew that his strength was in form changing, not brains, but he was finally catching on Blessings and curses combined Wishes that did good and ill together

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PH-RSAYTHOM

"That s an interesting unit of currency " Dor remarked "Who asked you, roval blockhead7" another rock asked "That's another, ' Drarphn agreed
  
"Royalty and stupidity combined

This was getting easier, thanks to Dor's talent "Go stifle in a bed of sweet roses, ' Dolph said "Go soak your head until it swells into leal beauty Find a really pretty girl who hates you And collect so many thumb taxes that you can't sit down for a week "

' Thiee, tour, live, six." Drarphn said, counting on his toes "Very well, you may enter Evil Prime Forest" He spread his wings and

flew away

They followed the prints into the torest The forest Evil Prime closed over and around them It got so thick that they couldn't see the way through, despite the footprints

"We can't pass," Dor complained, wedging ahead

"Can," a \oice came

"Can't can't.'
  
a halt buried stone retorted

A long vine dangled down before them It sprouted many legs instead of leaves, and the legs began to dance "Can can," it sang And the way opened up somewhat

"A chorus vine," Bink said, recognizing the species "Thank you, vine, you have nice legs '

The vine turned from green to red It appreciated being appreciated

But soon the way became impassable The glowing footprints dis appeared, they had lost the way

Dolph looked up "There seems to be space higher up," he said "Maybe I can fly us through "

"There's no room for a roc bird here," Dor pointed out

Dolph considered "Maybe there is room for a small one I'll become a midget roc " He did so, and there did seem to be just enough room tor his wings if he chose his route carefully He was still a pretty big bird

The others got on his feet, and he flew up They seemed much heawer, but he realized that was because he was so much smaller It was all he could do to stay airborne

He made it through the labyrinth of the levels of the torest, and out the other side And almost stalled out

The world had ended

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117

Then he realized that it was merely the rim of Cone The forest filled in right up to it, and halted at the end, where the world turned inside

And inside was filled with a vast sea It stretched all the way across the interior ot Cone, filling it The water took off at right angles to the rim, and as he flew over it, this became the level surface There was no problem of orientation of the kind they had encountered on Pyramid, when they turned the rim of Cone, gravity turned too

He rounded the corner and flew low over the water All around the great circular rim he saw a flurry of activity Apparently visiting the shore was great sport for the inhabitants

Sport9 Suddenly he realized that the activity consisted of couples summoning storks Right in the open, splashing in the fringe of the water, in sight of all the other couples There were children watching too Apparently the process wasn't secret, on this world Could there be a special license right by the shore7

He flew back the way he had come, peering closely He could see the footprints emerging from the forest—who knew what route the Zombie Master had taken'—and going into the water So flying over this tilted sea was pointless, they needed to get below the surface Could they do that9 How would they breathe'

He glided down and made a landing on the water He gave the others time to get free, then changed into a sea serpent He held out his flippers so as to support them, so the three of them could consult

"Those prints go down the inside wall of the cone," Dor said "That's where we'll have to go

"Hisss," Dolph said

"How will we breathe9" the surface of the water translated helpfully Of course Dolph himself could breathe, because he had gills, but the others couldn't change form

Dor considered "Since this is a dream, we may be able to breathe under water Evidently the Zombie Master did Let's try it "

The two men put their faces in the water and breathed Sure enough, they had no trouble It would ha\e been a different story, had they been real, but dreams had special privileges

Dolph put his head under Dor faced him "You might as well carry us down, however, it will be faster than walking We don't know how far the Zombie Master went '

118

ANTHOM

So they clung to his fins while Dolph carefully dived below He lound the flowing prints, and followed them He saw that there were creatures living along the cone wall, and they had houses and gardens and paths For them, that was level ground, though it was actually at right angles to the upper surface of the sea and opposite to the outside suitace they had first landed on So Cone had its own rules of orientation. different from those of the other worlds

The prints seemed to be heading down toward the very conic inside tip of Cone Dolph increased his speed, making the trail a blur In that manner he passed hills and vales and mountains, all populated h\ assorted cieatures This seemed to be a world of crossbreeds, so that the dragon-harpy-goblin was indeed typical There was no counting the number of combinations there seemed to be, apparently any creature joined with any other, and the stork delivered constantly changing combinations

That made him pause Did Cone even have storks9 It might have some other means of delivering babies Maybe it had a different Adult Conspiracy to conceal the details That was an interesting notion He remembered when he had married Electra, and neither of them had known the secret of stork signaling What a night they had had1 By the time they figured it out, he had realized that he loved Electra, and no longer wanted to marry lovely Nada Naga He had been satisfied evei since Electra had turned out to be the perfect wife for him

At last they neared the inner tip of Cone And there where the come surface of this world came together in a point, was a house The prints led up to it

They stopped outside it. and Dolph resumed manform They were right he had no trouble breathing without his gills

The door opened, and Ida emerged She looked forty, apparently their ages were fixed by that of the Ida on Ptero, whose age changed with her geography Dor suspected that would be disquieting, not to have control of one s age