Two To The Fifth (13 page)

“Thank you,” she said. There was something in her manner that made him suspect that she hadn't really lost her balance.

“Welcome.” He felt himself blushing, for no reason.

“Those extra hours need to be properly handled.” she continued after a fetching moment. “They come to the village of Century, where a giant century plant stores excess time. The villagers catch the hours as they drift in and stack them safely around the plant. Then in fall they send them back. There would be real disruption if they got lost; Mundania might get stuck permanently on the early time. Those folk wouldn't like that.”

“They wouldn't,” he agreed. She was still standing too close, and he couldn't retreat farther on the narrow path. Was she trying to spin a story to keep him there? “Is there a point to this discussion?”

“There is, Cyrus. There was an accident a few months ago, and a number of skilled villagers were rendered impossibly old, putting them out of service.”

“Old? I don't see—”

“It's complicated, but the essence is that when a person handles an hour, he or she ages that hour Since there are thousands of hours, this can have considerable effect. They become significantly older in the summer, and then return to their younger ages in fall. They are used to it, but it's not a job anyone else can do. So when things went wrong—”

“You stepped in!” he said, finally catching on.

“The three of us stepped in,” she agreed. “As general-purpose Sorceresses we were able to adapt and fill in until the village was able to obtain youth elixir to restore their aged workers. That was a job that required twenty-five days, but of course the hours couldn't wait without causing real mischief So Melody went first, to do the first third of the job. She's always first. She went there for six days, and handled the hours for them, and in that time she aged three years, then reverted when she returned to Castle Roogna.”

“So she was still twelve,” he said.

“In body. But she had been fifteen at the village. She said it was a unique experience. For one thing, her body bloomed, and she got odd notions, but didn't know how to implement them. It was frustrating.”

“I think I can appreciate that.”

“Then Harmony went. She's always second. She was there eight days, because there were more hours than Melody had realized, and aged four years before she reverted. She said she was a full-blown woman of sixteen, and loved it, but couldn't keep it when she left.”

“That was surely fortunate.”

She eyed him obliquely, “Perhaps, Then I went, and there were still more hours, and I was there ten days before catching up the hours, barely a day before they returned with the youth elixir so their regulars could return to work. So I was seventeen, in the full flush of lovely womanhood, before I reverted.” She gazed at him. “My body returned to twelve, but my mind is seventeen. I actually lived those years, Cyrus, and the villagers told me I was pretty. I wanted you to know that.”

Cyrus did not find this reassuring. What could he say? “I suppose it does explain your maturity of outlook.”

“Yes. My girl body sometimes carries me away foolishly, but my mind is capable of much more, especially emotionally. I wish I could make you believe that.”

“I believe it,” he said insincerely. This whole business made him profoundly uncertain. Had she been seventeen physically, and approached him like this—no, he must not go there.

Now Rhythm turned and resumed walking, leading him along the path. “What is your ambition in life, Cyrus?”

He laughed. “That is what brought me to the Good Magician's Castle. My father, Roland Robot, wanted me to become a leader of robots. My mother, Hannah Barbarian, wanted me to capture and marry a lovely wild-haired uncivilized woman. I couldn't reconcile the two, so I went to the Good Magician—and garbled my Question. And he told me my true ambition: to write and direct plays.”

“You could still be a leader and marry a lovely wild-haired rebellious woman.”

“Maybe. I do think I need to marry, because of this Two to the Fifth hint, I think it means that I need to become two by marrying the right woman.”

The path opened out into the glade with the pond. “Isn't it pretty?” she asked as they came to stand by the water.

“Yes.” He was beginning to wonder what the point was. He was almost certain she had more in mind than just telling him about her timely experience.

“It's a love spring.”

“A love spring!” he exclaimed, stepping back. “They're dangerous.”

“That depends.”

It seemed best to change the subject again, “Now what did you want to tell me?”

“About your conflicting ambitions: you could please both your parents.”

“I'm not sure how. Writing plays isn't the same as being a leader, and I'm beginning to think that there is no other woman quite like my mother. The other actresses—”

“Who flirt shamelessly with you,” she said, frowning.

“Yes. But they are civilized women. None of them would do anything really wild.”

“You could marry a wild princess.”

He laughed, “You know, that would fulfill my parents' ambitions for me! I would become a leader by definition, and her wildness would thrill my mother. But there's one flaw in that idea.”

“What flaw?”

“What princess would ever want to marry a cyborg Playwright?”

She faced him squarely, “I would.”

“Theoretically, when you grow up, if your mature judgment didn't make you see the foolishness of it.”

“No. Now.”

“You must be joking.”

“Look at my aura. It's right for you.”

So it was. “But—”

“I have come to know you, Cyrus. I have a crush on you,” she confessed, blushing again. “In fact it's more than a crush. I love you, and always will. I am old enough at seventeen to understand my feeling. I can see some aspects of the future, and know this for sure. I'd do anything you wanted me to, even if I don't understand it, age no barrier,” She made a little gesture, as of opening her shirt. “Please, Cyrus, take me. My body isn't quite there yet, but my spirit is.” Her blush had become furious; she knew she was making a forbidden offer.

He was appalled. “But you're a child!”

Something faintly barbaric crossed her features. “Are you rejecting me, after I bared my secret heart to you?”

“Of course I am. I would never touch a child. The Adult Conspiracy forbids it.”

“Even though you now know I'm really more like seventeen?”

“You would have to be seventeen in mind and body, or more, to have any right to—to do what you ask. You're not.”

“So it's like that,” she said grimly. “Well, then we'll do it the hard way.” She reached into a pocket.

“Rhythm, you're making me nervous,” he said, remembering again that she was a Sorceress. As he had been warned, any woman spurned was dangerous, and a Sorceress especially so, regardless of her age.

“You should be.” She brought out a little sphere. She bit into it. It puffed into vapor, surrounding her.

Then the vapor cleared. Rhythm had activated another decade spell. Now she was twenty-two, lovely and wild-haired. “Oh, my,” Cyrus breathed, awed by the transformation.

“I'm not a child any more,” she said, “Am I?”

“N-No. But—”

“Now I have much the same body I had at seventeen. This dress is way too tight,” she said. She ripped it open and dropped it on the ground. Her bra and panties were splitting at the seams, and she ripped them off too, letting her abruptly mature body spring to its full unfettered dimensions. It wasn't just her flaming red hair that was wild; it was her whole personality. She stood resplendently, defiantly nude.

Cyrus freaked out. He stood immobile, unable to rip his gaze from her remarkable body. It might exist only for an hour, but it overwhelmed him. This was the very image of his Perfect Woman, Doubly dangerous because he knew she was really a child, despite what she said. All he could do was gasp a single syllable. “No!”

“I love you, Cyrus,” she said. “My mature perspective doesn't change that. But it seems you don't love me. Fortunately I can do something about that.”

“No!” he repeated. What awful folly was she contemplating?

She stepped into him, threw her arms about him, and kissed him. If he hadn't already been freaked out, this would have done it. She was the most exciting contact he'd ever had, thrilling him in all manner of illicit ways. Then she drew back slightly. “Are you quite sure you don't love me, Cyrus?”

“No,” he said weakly. But he wasn't sure how he meant it.

“That can be taken two ways. So we'll make it one way.” She clasped him tightly, half lifted him, and jumped into the pond, hauling him along with her. The love spring.

Oh, no! Now they were both sprawled in the water, thoroughly soaked, and it was indeed conducive. Suddenly he was ardently loving her. To bleep with the awful guilt! He held her and kissed her avidly.

“That's more like it,” she said. “Fortunately I am unaffected by the spring, being already there.” She kissed him back, passionately.

Then somehow his clothing was off, and they were in the throes of utter abandon. He couldn't get enough of her, nor she of him.

He wasn't sure how long the passion lasted, but finally they both dragged themselves out of the pond and lay panting on the bank. “Do you love me now, Cyrus?” she asked with two fifths of a smile.

“I love you now and forever, Rhythm,” he said. “I don't think you even needed the love spring. You won me with that first adult kiss.”

“That's nice,” She rolled into him, and they clasped again. “I dreamed of doing this with you. Only I was too young to know the details, I might have suspected them at seventeen, but I lost that information when I reverted. I just wanted your complete devotion.”

“You have it,” he said, kissing her. “But there's a problem.”

“I'll be twelve again, within the hour,” she agreed.

“You know this love can't be.”

“Unfortunately I do, now that I am conversant with the hidden details of the Adult Conspiracy. I was foolishly irresponsible. I won't remember those details when I revert, but I will still love you.”

“And I will still love you,” he said with sadly mixed emotions. “But this love is forbidden.”

She nodded. “So we had better work it out now, while I still have my knowledge. I will forget the details, but you won't. I will still be more than willing to indulge those details, if you guide me.”

“No! I love you, but I can't do that.”

“I understand. You are an honorable man, which is one of the qualities I like about you. But will you let me kiss you, after I revert? You can just stay still, doing nothing, so you're not at fault.”

“I will be at fault if I let you,” he said miserably. “Rhythm, I will want desperately to do everything with you, but I must not do anything. This is awful.”

She nodded again. “I did not work everything out, as a child. I was not equipped to. But I think I will remember that I did work them out as an adult, so will know that I have to leave you alone. We must tell no one of this tryst.”

“Yes! But Melete will know.”

“She will have the sense to ignore it.”

“Yes.”

“Suppose I sneak into your bed at night, and—”

“No!”

“No,” she echoed regretfully. “Bleep.”

He had to laugh. “At least we understand each other's pain. You will revert, we'll recover and patch up our clothing, and there will be nothing more between us. No one will know.”

“So that's settled,” she agreed. “Anything else I want of you, I'll have to have now.” She clasped him again, kissed him, and they had another desperate bout of passion.

“I think the hour is about over,” Cyrus said with infinite regret.

“Yes. It is time to repair my outfit so that there is not an illicitly bare girl in your presence. Now that I am adult, I honor the Adult Conspiracy too.” Then she looked past him. “What's what?”

He followed her gaze. “It looks like a stork. It must be passing here coincidentally.”

“We did summon the stork,” she reminded him. “Several times. Emphatically. I am now in a position to know.”

That was a coy understatement. They had probably jolted several storks out of their flight paths. “But they take at least nine months to deliver. This can't be ours.”

But the stork came in for a landing beside them. “Stymy Stork, at your service,” he said. “I have a delivery for Princess Rhythm.” He set down his bundle.

Both of them stared at stork and bundle, stupefied.

“I don't make many deliveries myself, these days,” Stymy said. “But this one is special. Congratulations, Princess.” He turned about, spread his wings, and took off.

“It's impossible,” Cyrus said. “There has to be a mistake.”

Rhythm reached for the bundle. She opened it. There was a precious baby girl in a basket. “Oh.” Rhythm said, picking her up and holding her close. “She is mine. I know it. The stork works must have gotten confused and delivered her immediately.”

Cyrus looked at the basket. It contained several bottles of milk, some diapers, and a sponge. The word “Kadence” was printed neatly on it. “She is Kadence,” he said.

“Of course, I always knew my daughter would be Kadence. Rhythm— Kadence. I just didn't expect her so soon.” She picked up a bottle and started feeding the baby. “This comes so naturally.”

“But you're about to revert!”

“Then you will have to take care of her,” she said. “She's your baby too.”

“How will I ever explain a baby?”

She smiled ruefully. “Consider it a challenge.”

Cyrus rescued his clothes from the love spring, and picked up the torn pieces of hers. “These won't be usable, for more than one reason. They're messed up, and mine are soaked with love elixir.”

“I'll make a spell,” Rhythm said. She focused, her drum and drumsticks appeared, she beat a brief pattern, and in a moment both their outfits were repaired and dry, “You had better get dressed. I'll wait until I revert.”

“You remaining bare until then will drive me crazy.”

“Wonderful,” she said. She glanced at the baby. “She's ready for a nap.” She set Kadence back into her basket and gently covered her over. Then she turned to Cyrus.