Five Portraits Page 5

  “But she’s a Demoness! They have no interest in mortals except as devices for their nefarious bets.”

  “That’s what I thought. Yet she came to me. You saw what you were missing and decided to join the human society, difficult as that was for you. Fornax believes she is missing something, so she is seeking it, just as you did. There’s a similar motive, even if you are quite different beings. Won’t you at least consider it?”

  Kandy was her closest friend. Kandy had sacrificed her power of decision to save Astrid’s life. What could she do? “I will consider it.”

  “Thank you,” Kandy said with evident relief. “You are not obliged to agree, just to give her a fair chance.”

  “I should talk with her. How do I meet her?”

  “Just say her name. She will hear you.”

  Astrid shrugged. “Fornax,” she murmured.

  A woman appeared. She was the exact opposite of Astrid, with dark skin, light blond hair, and a dark dress with translucent sequins. This had to be Fornax, assuming a reversed likeness. “Take my hand,” she said.

  Astrid took her hand.

  Then they were flying up off the ground, above the trees, and across the terrain of Xanth, spread out beneath them like a patchwork quilt. Then higher, until the land below assumed the shape of a peninsula embraced by the sea. Then higher yet, until they reached the crescent moon. They landed within the curve of it, where there was a landscape made of honey.

  “No newly married couples are using the honeymoon at the moment, so we can borrow it,” Fornax said.

  Bemused, Astrid could think of only a stupid question. “How can we breathe here?”

  “With magic, anything is possible. We can breathe anywhere in the universe, and be comfortable.”

  “And you—aren’t you the Demoness of antimatter? Whose very touch makes everything explode in total conversion of mass to energy? How can we be touching?”

  “This is true. I dare not touch any normal matter. My form is a semblance assumed for convenience, crafted of local substance, a simulacrum, governed by my mind. You and I are not actually touching. Usually I just make an illusion, as that’s the easiest and safest magic, but I needed to convey you here.”

  “Kandy said you asked her to be your friend, and she turned you down.”

  “She has reason. She has to be objective.”

  “So she asked me to consider it.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m a basilisk! A poisonous lizard. My very nearness can kill.”

  “Yes. Your situation is not as devastating as mine, but there is a parallel.”

  Astrid contemplated the semblance of the Demoness. There was indeed a parallel. “You’re a Demoness! Your power compared to mine is like a galaxy versus a gnat. Why should you care half an iota about my friendship?”

  “Your analogy minimizes the case,” Fornax said candidly. “But you have a soul, and I have none. On that basis we can associate as equals. If you are interested.”

  Astrid remembered what the Good Magician had said about the value of a soul. Now Fornax was confirming it, to a degree. He had said that souls were immeasurably precious, at least to those who had them. That was curious. If no one who lacked a soul wanted one, what was the point? “I am interested, but confused,” Astrid said candidly. “I came by my soul by accident, and didn’t even know it for some time, and have hardly been aware of it since. Why does it interest you?”

  “A soul enables a person to be decent, as you are. To have friends, as you do. To love, as you do. To have larger aspirations, as you do. Demons have none of these things.”

  “And Demon’s don’t value souls,” Astrid said. “Why would you?”

  “That may be complicated to explain. Before you acquired your soul, by whatever means, did you care about such things?”

  “No. I realize now that my caring dated from my acquisition of the soul.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Astrid reconsidered. “No. I think I was a bit jealous of the way humans enjoyed each other’s company. No cockatrice or basilisk ever wanted company.”

  “You must have had the potential to handle a soul. That soul may even have sought you out, knowing you would do better by it than some freak in the dream realm.”

  “Souls have wills of their own?”

  “They may. It is a reasonable conjecture.”

  “And you have the potential to handle a soul!” Astrid said, seeing it. “So you are interested.”

  “That may be the case.”

  “Maybe the night mares have another soul you could take.”

  “They do not. They tightened up their procedures after that mishap.”

  “You must have something in mind.”

  “I do. But a soul normally cannot be taken. It must be given, and not entirely.”

  “I am not following this.”

  “There was a character named Jumper Spider who was given human form and associated closely with several human women,” Fornax said. “In fact two of them seduced him, in friendship. That association eventually provided him with a soul, a composite of portions of his human friends so that he became a souled creature. That in turn enabled him to marry the Demoness Eris, called by some the Goddess of Discord, and when she shared his soul, as happens in marriage, she became like the person she had been emulating. That is, nice. She also became the friend of Jumper’s friend Wenda Woodwife. She is much more satisfied with her present existence than she was in the past. Were I to associate closely enough with a souled person, as she did, I might pick up at least a portion of a soul.”

  “That’s why you want a friend!” Astrid said. “So her soul might rub off on you.”

  “Part of it, at any rate,” the Demoness agreed. “Enough, perhaps, to provide me with what I crave.”

  “What do you crave?”

  “The abatement of my loneliness.”

  “You are lonely? You have unimaginable power! How can you be lonely?”

  Fornax laughed. “Were you not lonely at the beginning of your life?”

  Astrid thought back again. “I believe I was, though I did not realize it at the time. Basilisks don’t have friends.”

  “Neither do soulless Demons.”

  “And you, associated with antimatter, can’t get close to anyone else anyway. That must be very difficult.”

  “It is,” Fornax agreed. “Touch my hand, and it will allow some of my feeling to show.”

  Curious, Astrid took her hand again.

  Suddenly she felt the utter loneliness not of hours or days or years or centuries, but of billennia: maybe twelve billion years. It was a deep and awful gulf extending beyond her imagination.

  “Wake,” Fornax said.

  Astrid snapped out of her trance. “What happened?”

  “You freaked out.”

  “But only men freak out when they glimpse a woman’s panties.”

  “Men are relatively superficial, compared to women, being really interested in only one thing. There are many ways to freak. Overwhelming feeling is one.”

  The Demoness was a creature in need of more than Astrid could provide. But at least she could help. She remembered that she was destined to have three friends, each more important than the previous ones. This seemed to be the realization of that. “I fear it is but a grain of sand in a mountain, but I will try to be your friend.”

  “Thank you.” Perhaps there was a tear in Fornax’s eye.

  “How do we proceed? I am not well experienced in friendship.”

  “I thought you would know, because you already have a friend in Kandy. I have never had a friend.”

  “I do have a friend in Kandy,” Astrid agreed thoughtfully. “And another in MareAnn. But they led the way. They knew what to do. I am still learning.”

  “Then we have a problem.”


  “Maybe we need advice. I can ask Kandy.”

  “No. Her conflict of interest applies to this. Anyway, she has enough to occupy her at the moment.”

  “Enough?”

  “She is my representative in Xanth. She is now negotiating a Demon Wager.”

  Astrid was taken aback. “I thought Demons negotiated their own terms.”

  “Not always. The other Demons don’t like dealing with me directly, so they are dealing with my representative. She has authority to speak for me on this particular matter, though she is not pleased.”

  “Not pleased?”

  “She doesn’t like the subject.”

  “Does the subject matter? She just needs to be objective.”

  “She is finding that difficult.”

  Astrid hesitated. “She is my friend, and I am concerned. Why should she find it hard to be objective?”

  “Because the subject is the Land of Xanth, and she has a certain interest in it.”

  “I don’t want to intrude in what is not my business, but I think it would help my understanding if I knew more about this.”

  “If we are to be friends, my business becomes your business, and your business mine, as I understand it. So I will tell you. The subject is the destruction of the Land of Xanth.”

  Astrid was taken even further aback. “As it happens, I too have an interest, being another denizen of Xanth.”

  “You need not be concerned. It doesn’t happen until fifty years hence.”

  “That helps. But I may live to see it, so it remains my concern. What is to happen to Xanth?”

  “It will be invaded by an alternate reality that is slightly more advanced. Rather than suffer themselves to be displaced, the citizens will go for mutual destruction. Thus Xanth will end.”

  “Is this certain?” Astrid asked with a sinking sensation.

  “No. There is an even chance it will survive, if the citizens pursue the appropriate course.”

  “That’s a relief! But then what’s the bet about?”

  “Whether they will pursue that rather devious course and save Xanth, or allow it to end.”

  Astrid got a sick feeling. “And you are betting that Xanth will end. That’s why Kandy is upset.”

  “Of course. What is Xanth to me, other than a chance to win a Demon Point?”

  “Well, it will complicate our friendship if I die.”

  “Then I shall have to save you before Xanth ends. And Kandy.”

  “You don’t care if everyone else dies?”

  “Should I?”

  Astrid signed. “I was forgetting you are a Demon. You lack human emotions.”

  “True.”

  “But isn’t loneliness an emotion?”

  “It must be, but it is not limited to humanity. It existed before humans came on the scene, and will exist after they depart the scene.”

  That was a good point. Astrid was beginning to see difficulties in this friendship. “At least that is separate from the question of our friendship. Let’s focus on the latter. I think we need advice from someone else, but I can’t think whom.” Then she reconsidered. “You mentioned Jumper Spider. An animal in human form, as I am. Married to a Demon. A mortal/Demon relationship. Maybe they could advise us.”

  “We’ll ask them. Take my hand.”

  Astrid took her hand, and they sailed up off the moon and into the sky. In half a moment they were cruising past pretty planets, one with icy rings.

  “Um, is this the way to Jumper and Eris?” Astrid asked.

  “It is the scenic route.”

  And to Demons there were no limits of ordinary physics. Maybe she would get used it it after a while.

  “Um, while we travel, there’s something else I would like to know.”

  “I will clarify it for you. What is it?”

  Astrid noted that the Demoness did not question her own ability to answer any question a mortal might have. That confidence was probably justified. “You are a capital D Demon. What is the distinction between that and small d demons, like demoness Metria?”

  “Capital Demons are virtually timeless spirits associated with natural forces who have existed almost since the universe began. Thus I associate with Antimatter, Xanth associates with Magic, Earth with Gravity, and so on. We also tend to have residences, but these are secondary. The fact that Xanth has a tiny bit of odd-shaped land and I have a galaxy means nothing; what counts is the unique associations. The universe would be incomplete without magic, gravity, antimatter, and the others, so we are eternal. Small demons, in contrast, are infinitesimal fragments associated with a particular Demon. Thus Metria is a figment of Demon Xanth’s imagination, crafted somewhat in his image but of no actual consequence.”

  “But Metria is a character, just as I am, and she does things to make an impression on others. That’s not inconsequential to me.”

  “You are a mortal,” Fornax reminded her gently. “Your perspective is severely limited. However, if you left the Land of Xanth you would exist as a harmless lizard. If Metria left, she would become a mere gust of wind and dissipate. That is part of the difference mortality makes. Metria has no real substance apart from the magic of the ambiance of Xanth, while you do. Magic affects you and makes you to a considerable extent what you are, but you would exist without it. She would not.”

  “Metria can be annoying and frustrating, but she is helping our virus cleanup, and I rather like her. I would not want to see her dissipate in wind.”

  “You have the capacity to like other folk,” Fornax agreed. “This is one of your qualifications to be my friend.”

  “I suppose I do,” Astrid agreed. “Thank you for the clarification about demons. I never had it quite straight before.” Actually she knew she would have to mull it over for a while to fully assimilate it, but that would work itself out.

  “If my information pleases you, I am glad to have provided it.” Fornax grimaced. “I have not before had any interest in pleasing another Demon, let alone a mortal. It is an intriguing exercise.”

  They came down in a pleasant garden where a handsome nude man and lovely nude women were sunning themselves beside a spider-shaped pool.

  “Oh for bleep’s sake,” the woman swore. “What are you doing here, Fornax? You know you’re not supposed to demolish private property.”

  “Tell them,” Fornax murmured to Astrid, letting her hand go.

  She should have known it would be up to her. They would not trust Fornax.

  “Jumper and Eris, I presume?” Astrid said. “I am Astrid Basilisk-Cockatrice, an animal in human form.” She shifted briefly to her natural form, then back. “I have a soul.”

  “A basilisk with a soul?” Eris asked.

  “It came upon me as I slept, but now I am guided by it. I mean no mischief to you. I merely want to talk.”

  “I feel your soul,” Eris said. “But you keep ill company. What brings you here?”

  “I am trying to have a friendship with Demoness Fornax, but am in doubt how to proceed. I thought that the two of you might have good advice.”

  The man became animated. “You’re a basilisk? With the deadly stare?”

  “Yes. But I wear these dark glasses so that I won’t hurt anyone. I don’t want trouble, just advice.”

  “This is interesting,” Jumper said, shifting briefly to spider form, and back. “We have not encountered another animal-Demon couple.”

  “We’re not a couple,” Astrid said quickly. “Just friends. But we’re not sure how to do it. We thought you would know.”

  Jumper shook his head. “We’re not friends. We’re lovers.”

  “And married,” Eris said. “Prince Jumper rescued me from confinement by marrying me, six years ago. He is also good company.” She bounced a suggestive glance off him, which made him glance back with enhanced appr
eciation. Obviously she took good care of his one interest.

  “Prince Jumper?” Astrid asked, surprised.

  “An honorary title,” Jumper said. “Princess Dawn arranged it. It’s a long story. So we can’t really tell you about friendship. The one to ask is my forest friend Wenda. She’s very friendly.”

  “She is also my friend,” Eris said. “She married Prince Charming the same year we married. They have half a slew of children. That’s another long story.”

  Half a slew in six years? Surely an exaggeration.

  “We will talk to them,” Fornax said. She took Astrid’s hand and they rose up, up, and away.

  “They seem like nice people,” Astrid remarked as they sailed past asteroids, comets, and novae.

  “She’s really changed since she connected with Jumper,” Fornax said. “Her power is Discord, but I don’t think she has used it once since she met him.”

  “He really is a spider. He seems happy.”

  “A Demoness can do a lot for a male, if she chooses.”

  “Because he is interested in only one thing?”

  “Of course. Even small d demonesses are very good at that one thing. Men are putty.”

  Astrid had of course observed that repeatedly in the course of her association with the other folk on the pun virus mission. She had a shapely human body, and when her dress became translucent it tended to freak out any men within range. Metria had also demonstrated her ability to freak out men.

  They came down by a palace. There in an ornate playground was a somewhat harried princess keeping tabs on half a slew of children, by actual count. They were all wildly different, but all seemed happy.

  “Hey look!” a little boy cried. “A lizard in man form!”

  “And a Demoness in girl form,” a little girl called.

  “Children!” the harried princess cried. “Dew knot approach strangers! They might bee dangerous.” Cowed, the children fell back.

  Dew knot? That was an unusual accent. Then Astrid remembered: she was a woodland creature who spoke with the forest dialect.

  Now Astrid got a better look at her. From the front she was a pretty woman, but from behind she was hollow. She had no innards. A woodwife indeed. How had she borne so many children so quickly?