“My hero!” Noletta flung herself at Flame, hugging him fervently. More little hearts spun out.

  “It occurs to me that an Element is good protection for a nymph,” Nydia said, gratified. The others nodded.

  Chapter 5

  Water

  They rejoined the enchanted path and walked along it, explaining how the path worked to Flame as they went. He was surprised. “So that’s why I could never burn it! The magic protects it.”

  “Yes,” Ecstasy said. “The enchanted path network is secure from hazards so that travelers can safely reach their destinations. But that’s only for traveling; the rest of Xanth still has its perils.” She smiled thinly. “Such as rampaging Elements.”

  “Noletta cured me of that.”

  Noletta smiled. “Any time you need further curing, let me know.” He opened his mouth, but she closed it with a gesture. “Not yet.” Now the others smiled. She had him thoroughly leashed.

  As the day declined, they came to a camp. “These, too, are enchanted to be safe,” Noletta said. “But I think you can protect me from the threats of the night, Flame. So if you prefer to camp with me apart from the others, we can do that.”

  He was perplexed. “Why apart?”

  Ecstasy stepped into the dialog. “Normal living humans prefer to keep some things private. In fact, the dread Adult Conspiracy enforces privacy relating to details of romance, at least in the presence of children. Nymphs are completely open about it, but this is taken as a sign of their incompleteness. These ones are learning how to be real people, so they honor the strictures too. Hugging and kissing is about the limit.”

  “Until we children stage our revolution and abolish the ridiculous Conspiracy,” Vinia said. “It’s been messing us up far too long.” Woe Betide nodded in agreement.

  “Thank you for explaining that,” Flame said. “I am finding human culture fascinating, even in its peculiar quirks.” He turned to Noletta. “I do want to be with you. But first I’d like to learn more. When you pass for a woman, I’d like to pass for a man.”

  Noletta grinned. “We’ll do it together.”

  “The template helps,” Nydia said. “But there are nuances.”

  “Template?”

  Nydia realized that he needed to understand about that too. “We nymphs are based on a template, which is a sort of fundamental pattern that specifies everything about us. Our appearance, our minds, our emotions, our ability to speak and read and to understand others. Then, as we spend time in life, we acquire experience and memory, which gradually make us become individual people, instead of identical copies except for the colors of our hair.”

  “I wish I had a template.”

  A quirk hovered near Noletta’s mouth. “Then you would be a faun. I like you better as you are. You value me for more than Only One Thing.”

  “You are my Everything,” he said sincerely.

  Noletta drew him close and kissed him. “Thank you.”

  “But we can share, to an extent,” Nydia said before this could become a distraction. “My companion Anthem Ant is contact-telepathic. Touch my hand and meet her.”

  He extended his fiery hand and she took it, the socks protecting her from the heat. “Hello, Flame!”

  “You’re a fire ant!”

  “Yes. We should get along.”

  Nydia remained silent, except for murmuring the ant’s words so that the unconnected members of the party could follow along, letting them talk. Of course they would be compatible!

  “Anthem,” he said. “Can you show me this template?”

  “Yes. It is right here, hidden in every cell of her body and brain. It’s small but powerful. It looks like this.”

  “The Mundanes call it DNA,” Ecstasy said. “I think that stands for Do Not Amend.”

  Flame frowned. He was learning human expressions. “It’s too complicated for me, but I can find out in time. This spot of it is different. What is it?”

  Anthem focused, analyzing it. “That’s the date stamp. This model was made two years ago.”

  This was news to Nydia. “I’m only two years old?”

  “What difference does it make,” Ecstasy asked, “when you are crafted complete, with no childhood, and have no memory in the Retreat?”

  That set Nydia back. Until recently, she might as well have been only one day old. Even if she could remember, what would there be except endless repetitions of that One Thing? The fauns might like it, having no wider horizons, but she would perish of boredom.

  “How old is mine?” Noletta asked, extending her hand. Nydia took it with her free hand, so the ant could connect.

  Anthem checked. “A year and a half.” She made a mental smile. “You nymphs are newly minted, like ants.”

  “Mints are delicious,” Noletta agreed.

  “And me,” Nerine said, extending her hand. Nydia let Noletta’s hand go and took Nerine’s.

  “One thousand years, give or take a few seconds,” Anthem said.

  A stifling silence landed on them all. Finally, Ecstasy fought free of it. “How’s that again? Did you slip a few decimals?”

  “That’s the date,” the ant insisted. “She’s older than she looks.”

  “By nine hundred and eighty-three years, give or take a few seconds?”

  “Yes.”

  “I had no idea,” Nerine said, awed.

  “We need more information,” Ecstasy said. “There has to be a background story. First you discovered that she’s a water nymph, misplaced in the Retreat. Now this. It can’t be coincidence.”

  “Could she have been hiding from something?” Vinia asked.

  “With no memory, until recently? More likely she was being hidden, even from herself. Who would think to look for a lost person in the Retreat?”

  Nydia got an idea. “If the templates are dated, do they have other features, such as maybe personal histories? We nymphs have none, but a real person might.”

  “But a real person should have a soul,” Ecstasy said. “Where is hers?”

  “A soul!” Nerine exclaimed. “Now I feel the loss. I did have one!”

  “Look for her history in the template,” Ecstasy said. “There wouldn’t be any after she came to the Retreat, but before that there could be.”

  Nydia and Anthem looked. There was a subsection labeled personal history. Nydia’s own was blank, but Nerine’s had content. Voila!

  “My future is flashing,” Noletta said. “That signals danger.”

  “There may be mischief here,” Ecstasy said. “Suppose she was hidden a thousand years ago, and we find out why, and it’s a dangerous enemy who then comes after us? We need to be careful.”

  “I have an idea,” Vinia said. “Suppose we link together as a party, using Anthem’s telepathy, and explore her history together? I might be able to use the paths to make sure we don’t get in trouble.”

  “This sounds crazy,” Ecstasy said. “But this is Xanth, where craziness is almost a way of life. Maybe it would work.”

  Nydia’s smarts came into play. “If we did that, we could be sitting here unconscious, completely tuned out of this situation and into the thousand-year-old one. Suppose someone else came? We’d have trouble explaining ourselves.”

  “Maybe more trouble than that,” Ecstasy said grimly. “If half a passel of males came upon three unconscious nymphs, there’s no telling what they would do.”

  Noletta glanced at Flame. “Can you help?”

  “Yes. I can set a low, controlled burn, a ring of fire around the cabin that would scorch anyone who tried to pass it. We would hear their screams as they got hot feet.”

  A glance circled around, finally returning to Nydia. “Let’s do it.”

  “Let’s eat and natural function first,” Noletta said. “And sleep. In case it takes time.”

  Vinia laughed. “Less than a thousand years.”

  They went about the routine. Then in the morning they gathered together, the cabin surrounded by the faint ring of fire, and made a ring of their own, holding hands. There was a throbbing background chord as Anthem Ant borrowed from all their brains, becoming immensely greater than ever in her natural state, and made a scene where they seemed to be in a craft resembling a large, curled leaf floating down through a complicated network of paths. It was the template, by whatever name. They landed before a closed door marked personal history. This was the place.

  Nydia turned to the others. “Are we ready?” Her voice seemed normal, though it was mental, as they were all in the scene together.

  “The path is green,” Vinia said. “Right through that door.”

  So the paths functioned even in this state. Magic was wonderful!

  Nerine pulled the door open. Beyond it was a wall of water. She stepped into it, her hair spreading out luxuriously as it had before. It seemed almost alive in its own right.

  The others followed, neither afoot nor swimming. They were like ghosts, visible only when focused on. “Remember,” Nydia said. “This is a memory we are watching. We’re not really here. It’s like reading a book or seeing a magic mirror show. Only Nerine is real for this scene, and even she can’t actually change anything.”

  “Fascinating,” Flame said. “I’ve never been in another Element like this.”

  Nydia realized that this would indeed be a novel experience for the Element of Fire, surrounded by water yet not being put out.

  “I know you’re as hot as ever, inside,” Noletta said fondly.

  “This is a deep freshwater lake,” Nerine said. “Ancient Ogre-Chobee, to be specific. I am actually a naiad, a freshwater nymph, though Metria in her ignorance gave me the name of a nereid, a sea nymph.”

  “How could she know?” Woe Betide asked, frowning.

  “It doesn’t matter. It may even keep me anonymous.”

  Nydia found that interesting. She hadn’t realized that there were freshwater and seawater nymphs as well as assorted land nymphs. But they were there in the template, once she thought to look.

  They were passing through what seemed to be a seaweed forest, with tall treelike plants, some of which bore strange fruit. An orchard, perhaps.

  “Your hair is beautiful,” Noletta said.

  “It’s actually borderline prehensile. It smooths out the currents around me when I swim, facilitating my progress. It warms me when the water is cool and cools me when it’s too warm. It frames my face, covering blemishes, making it prettier. It’s mainly cosmetic, but I keep it secret, except from my closest friends, as naiads normally don’t have talents. I never wanted to be different from my siblings.”

  Nerine swam toward an elaborate underwater palace in the distance, her green hair rippling as she moved. She was utterly lovely in her nudity. The water prevented any part of her from even thinking about sagging. The only thing she wore was a small green crown set on her head, above the main mass of hair.

  Crown?

  The triton guard at the palace gate saluted as Nerine approached. He was a handsome figure of a man above the waist, with an equally handsome fish tail below it. “Welcome home, Princess,” he said by rippling the gills of his neck.

  Princess? Nydia was sure the others were as surprised as she was.

  Nerine rippled her own gills. “Thank you, Tris.”

  She had gills? These had never been evident before.

  “Now we are within a kind of protective magic bubble that surrounds the palace,” Nerine explained to her invisible audience. “It surely will electrify any hostile intruders. Only those it knows and accepts can pass harmlessly, as I did.” She swam through and on up to her own royal chamber, which overlooked the stately royal garden.

  “You’re a princess?” Nydia asked.

  “Yes. Princess Naiadia, one of several here, my sisters. At this stage we don’t know which of us will eventually ascend to the throne. Naiads are theoretically immortal, unless we get killed. Something else must have happened to me.”

  So they could talk freely with each other, here in the memory. But it would have no effect on the ancient reality.

  They approached a barred turret window surrounded by pretty sea flowers. Nerine touched it, and it swung open, recognizing her. She entered a nice apartment chamber, with royal feminine touches, like rippling curtains that made their fish pictures seem alive. She picked up a piece of seashell candy and nibbled on it, relaxing.

  “Princess!”

  Nerine looked. The voice was from outside the window. There was a naiad there. “What is it, dear?” she called.

  “I’m Neoma. My name means ‘From the light of the new moon,’ though I can see the moon only when I swim to the surface. I’m in trouble. I need your help.”

  Nerine, as Naiadia, clearly had boundless sympathy for distressed girls, and this was surely generally known. Some might try to take advantage of it. But what could she do except follow her nature? “Come in.” She opened the window.

  Relieved, Neoma swam into the room, and Nerine closed the bars behind her. Soon she was telling her problem. “Prince Norward is after me.”

  “Norward!” Nerine obviously knew the name. “Wasn’t he banned from recruiting here?”

  “Yes. But he has ways. He approached me as I worked in the wider palace garden, and I did not recognize him, as he wore a mask. I thought he was a local man, a worker. Then I was temporarily stunned. Before I knew it, he had his compelling lasso around me and was hauling me away. I could not even try to escape.”

  “You poor girl,” Nerine said. “How did you escape him?”

  “He kissed me. I was plainly unwilling, but I could not resist his awful caress, having no command of my body. Then his hand snagged on the lasso, which was across my bottom as he goosed me, and jarred it loose. For the moment, I was able to move, though he still had hold of me. I bit him on the shoulder, hard. ‘You female dogfish!’ he swore as he involuntarily let go. I launched myself clear and fled. He pursued me, but I dived through the magic bubble, feeling only a tingle because it knows me, while it electrified him. He fell back, swearing so savagely that bubbles of roiling smoke floated up. Then he went to brace the triton guard, and I knew he would soon be through, by crook or hook or bribe. He’ll be here momentarily. Princess, you have to help me!”

  “He should be arrested.”

  “Princess, please. You know they won’t do that. He’s a prince, while I’m only a lowly naiad without influence. He’ll haul me to his garden of horrors as an exhibit for his collection. Fate only knows what revolting things he’ll do to me there. Theoretically the frozen naiads are works of art decorating the garden, but I’ve heard stories that sicken me.”

  “So have I,” Nerine said. Then, to her memory audience: “We naiads are very free with our favors, but there are limits, and Norward made a practice of transgressing them. But somehow, he escaped any reckoning. Even the authorities feared him.”

  Nydia knew from the template that some males were like that. They were barred from the Retreat because they could ruin nymphs in ways even memory wiping couldn’t fix. She did not know what could do that, and did not care to know, but was sure that it was true. This was outside the Retreat, where there was less security.

  “I can protect you,” Nerine said to Neoma. “But there are cautions. I can send you to the Secret Garden as a worker. But you will be unable to return to your former life. It’s a one-way journey.”

  “So I have heard,” the naiad said. “But I’ll never be safe from Norward if I remain here. I am ready to go.”

  “It’s not a bad life, and the plants are magical. But you can’t leave it.”

  “I know. But it’s vastly better than what I would suffer here.”

  “Then come this way.” Nerine led Neoma out the rear door of her suite and down a slanting tunnel that led to the palace basement. No stairways were needed, since they swam wherever they went. Down below was an oubliette which it seemed no one frequented. A strong current of water was pouring into it from a vent in a wall. “This leads to the Secret Garden,” Nerine said. “The current will carry you there. When you arrive, the garden mistress will assign you to a section, and that will be that. You will be completely protected against villains like Norward. You’ll soon make friends with other workers, male and female, in your time off. It’s a good existence. Just not the same as here.”

  “I understand.” Without further dialog, the naiad plunged into the oubliette and was gone.

  “But I wish we could be forever rid of ilk like Norward,” Nerine muttered as she swam back to her suite. “She should not have to give up her life here because of him.”

  She entered her suite.

  “Hello, princess.”

  She was startled. “What?”

  A man was hovering just outside her access window. “You sent the naiad away.”

  “Prince Norward!”

  “The same.”

  “How did you get here?”

  “I bribed the triton.”

  They had feared that. “Get out of here! I want nothing to do with you.”

  He smiled cruelly. “Not so fast, princess. You owe me a conquest.”

  “I owe you nothing! You are a blot on the depths of the lake. If I had my way, you’d be executed!”

  “Now, is that a nice way to address your future master?”

  “You are a master of ordure!”

  He nudged close to the bars. “You are lovely when you’re mad.”

  “I’m calling the guards!”

  Again the smile. “I think not.”

  She opened her mouth to curse him—and froze in place. She couldn’t move. What was happening?

  “It’s a useful elixir, parallel to the lasso,” he said. “You can act only as I direct you to. The effect is temporary, but it suffices. Now open the window.”