“I will don a swatch of ribbon.”

  “I will look for it. I will wear one, too, so you know me from the other humans.” Because to a nickelpede all humans would look alike.

  “I will see you then.”

  Vinia focused on the next ally. This was the salamanders. She touched the map.

  She found herself in another low-to-the-ground host body. This one had only four legs; could they be enough? Her skin was bright red. She seemed to be tending a garden; the odor of the flowers was appealing.

  “Hello,” Vinia said. “I’m Vinia Human.”

  “Ah, the visiting spirit. The Demon said you would be arriving soon. I am Sali Salamander, and this is my section of our communal garden, such as it is.”

  “There is a problem?”

  Sali pushed some ash from nearby to the base of the nearest stem. “This area is largely burned out. After a few years, the ashes lack the nutrition of a fresh burning. So we have to move to find new ground to process. Our flowers need it, or their bouquet suffers.”

  Vinia looked at the small brown blossoms on the plant. They did seem slightly malnourished. That perhaps explained why the salamanders needed to move. She had never thought of them as gardeners; quite the opposite. “What kind of flower is it?”

  “Stinkus hornibus, popularly known as stink horn. It is our specialty.”

  “Stink horn!” Vinia repeated, astonished. “But that’s the worst-smelling stench of all!”

  “Perhaps to large creatures who like to trample innocent pods. The fragrance is refined to repel them, so they don’t do it again. We don’t like to have our gardens trampled.”

  It was beginning to make sense. A bad smell could indeed cause a ham-footed monster of any size to back off. “I am here to proffer an offer by the new Queendom of Thanx. Fresh fertile unburned land in exchange for protection from the trolls who will invade tomorrow.”

  “We don’t much like trolls. They have big careless feet. We give them hotfoots, and if that is not effective, we burn them out.”

  “We would ask that you restrict your burning to your territory. We are nervous about uncontrolled fire, and salamander fire is notoriously difficult to extinguish.”

  “It’s impossible to put out, except by spreading its own ashes on it,” Sali said proudly. “But we can direct it so that it doesn’t stray beyond our area. There’s no sense wasting perfectly good fire on regions that are not right for gardening.”

  “Um, yes. At any rate, if your queen is interested, I would like to talk to her.”

  Sali spread some more nutritive ash. “She’s interested. We all are.” She held up a chunk of burnt residue. “This is a largely inferior fragment,” she said, frowning. “New territory would provide much finer pieces of ash.”

  There was something about the way she said it that hinted that there was some risqué humor, but the Conspiracy prevented Vinia from figuring it out. Bleep the Conspiracy!

  “Then if you will take me to your leader …”

  “Queen Sapphire.” Sali tamped down the ash. “I believe I am done here for now. We’ll go see her.”

  “Are you a matriarchy?” Vinia asked as they walked.

  “Not at all. We merely separate the genders so we can get more work done. Otherwise there tends to be distractive flirtation, even outside of mating season. The boys are trying to get precommitments from the girls, and the girls are trying to secure the highest placements among the males. We all want the hottest collisions. Then when mating season comes, whomp! Each one can make out with up to five opposites in the first few minutes. What a wild party! The flames are ferocious. So King Saber runs the male division, and Queen Sapphire the female division. When we congregate for mass mating, Saber and Sapphire have to do it first.” She tittered. “Though they really don’t like each other much. But it’s the protocol. They must act like blistering old flames. After that is more like a free-for-all, and we don’t have to pretend to be baking in passion.”

  Vinia realized that Sali didn’t realize that she was underage. Vinia kept her mind shut on that score, though she was understanding only tantalizing fragments. It was as if she were getting the ashes instead of the flames.

  They came to a fort made of tamped ashes. There was the hot queen on an upper section, watching over the salamanders as they tended their sections of the garden.

  “Sapphire, I bring the human delegate,” Sali called. It was a sort of whistle, but Vinia understood it as speech. “The one the Demon promised.”

  “Good enough,” the queen said. “Where is this region? Has it been burned over recently?”

  “Hello, Queen Sapphire,” Vinia said through Sali’s mouth. “I am Vinia Human, representing the large-creature Queendom of Thanx. I don’t think it has been burned; it is protected by a dragon who is a smoker, not a fire breather.”

  “That seems promising,” Sapphire agreed. “However, we need to be sure we would be welcomed there.”

  “We need you to stop the trolls from invading tomorrow. Do that and you will be welcome.”

  The queen smiled in her fashion. “We can handle trolls. They don’t much like hotfoots.”

  “All you need to promise is that you won’t burn anywhere outside your selected section,” Vinia said. “The sirens have promised not to drown any citizens of Thanx, and the nickelpedes won’t gouge any citizen either. It is part of the truce.”

  “You have sirens and nickelpedes going there?”

  “Yes, and we are negotiating with ghosts, snails, and love/hate bugs. We want everyone to get along and live in peace with one another. Females will govern Thanx: it’s a feminist queendom. The male kingdoms seem not to like that, but those who have felt oppressed by males should like it there.”

  “This interests me,” Sapphire said.

  “We believe any females of any species will be comfortable there,” Vinia said. “As long as they treat each other with courtesy.”

  There was a rumble of thunder. They looked around. Three nasty little clouds were floating toward them, darkening as they went.

  “Oh, waterlogs!” the queen swore. “We can burn anything, including water, but a storm is mostly air and vapor, hard to focus on. We’re going to get horribly doused. That will mess up our transplanting of horn seeds. We need more time.”

  “Maybe not,” Vinia said. “I know someone who can help, if she chooses to.” She focused on the copy of the ring that had flaked off the original, along with her mind. The astral spirit of the ring. “Fiera,” she said. Would it work? The original ring would, but this was only part of it.

  An answer came. “Who’s calling?”

  It did work! But would the fire cloud cooperate? “This is Vinia Human,” she said. “We met when Prince Ion summoned the fire spirit Brand for you. We had a brief dialogue about choice. Do you remember?” Because Fiera might not.

  “I remember. What’s this about?”

  Or might not care if she did remember. “I am helping a band of salamanders move to the Queendom of Thanx, where feminists rule.”

  “Feminists?”

  “They believe that females should have more choices, and not be subservient to males.”

  “Now that’s interesting.”

  But was it interesting enough? “But some nasty little male storm clouds are threatening to douse us. Will you help?”

  “Maybe. What’s in it for me?”

  “Maybe you could come to Thanx, too, along with the salamanders. I think you would like it there, with all the independent females. But you would have to promise not to burn anything outside the assigned fire zone.”

  “Aww.” But the cloud was intrigued.

  “Please come. If you back off the stormlets, I think you will be welcomed to Thanx. This wouldn’t interfere with your relationship with FireBrand; it would just give you a home base of your own. You might like the feminists.”

  “A kingdom of feminists,” Fiera said, intrigued again. “I might indeed.”

  “Queendom.” Did the terminology really matter?

  “On my way.” The scintillating cloud appeared before them. “Where are you?”

  Oh. Vinia was not in the body the cloud had seen before. “I am here, astrally visiting with a salamander. We encountered these nasty little clouds over there.”

  Fiera extended a burning vapor tendril with an embedded eyeball and looked. “Oho! I have seen these brats before. I’ll whip their soggy little bottoms.” She floated off to intercept the ministorms.

  They watched as Fiera flashed a display of fiery lightning. When the stormlets did not back off, being determinedly bad boys, she formed a jagged fire bolt and fired it into the nearest cloudlet. The bolt struck it dead center, and the heat made the cloud explode into fragments of singed vapor. The other two cloudlets hastily retreated, knowing they were overmatched.

  “I think we’re going to get along,” Sapphire said approvingly.

  Wonderful! “Grossclout,” Vinia said.

  The Demon appeared. “Good thinking, girl,” he said. “I will clear it with HQ. Meanwhile you get them started crossing over.” He set down a portal and vanished.

  “Go through this,” Vinia told the queen. “It leads to your section of Thanx.”

  The salamanders quickly gathered a number of the smaller plants, together with mature horns, and hauled them to the portal. Then they started going through themselves.

  “What about me?” Fiera asked.

  “Go on through,” Vinia said. “Squeeze yourself into a tube of vapor and dive in. You will find yourself in Thanx.”

  “Thanx,” Fiera repeated. Vinia wasn’t sure whether this was appreciation or a question about the destination. The cloud wrapped into a rope-shaped column and threaded down into the portal.

  Then Vinia and Sali went through. They were in Thanx, and Demesne was there to welcome them. She had assumed the form of a large burning salamander, and they were paying close attention.

  Vinia looked about and saw that Fiera was hovering a moderate distance apart. She was not a salamander, despite sharing their fiery nature, and perhaps felt unwelcome. She needed reassurance. “Is it okay if I talk with her?” she asked Sali.

  “By all means. I saw how she helped us. I’ll pipe down and stay out of your way.”

  “Thank you.” Vinia focused. “Fiera,” she said to the ring.

  “Ah, there you are.” The cloud floated over. “You were lost amid the salamanders.”

  “I know Grossclout cleared it with the queen, so you are welcome here,” Vinia said. “I just wanted to reassure you personally.”

  “Thank you,” Fiera said. “I wanted to talk with you anyway. That’s why I answered your call.”

  “You mean you weren’t being nice?”

  “Nice? How can I be nice? I’m the evil twin sister, remember?”

  Fracto’s twin. “We were on opposite sides, I guess, but you seemed sensible to me. You felt females should have rights.”

  “I do. But I have no friends.”

  “No friends? What about FireBrand?”

  “He’s my boyfriend. That’s different. He is satisfied with just one thing, and if I give him that, he is not interested in my mind at all. It’s all physical. Which is fine; I like a fiery fling too. But I’m still lonely for a companion I can talk to. Share feelings with. Someone like you.”

  “But I’m a nothing girl! A child.”

  “You’re a caring person. That’s relatively rare. When you called, I remembered. So I came.”

  “You came,” Vinia agreed. “You helped.”

  “The truth is I wouldn’t have come just to help. Helping is not evil. I wanted to be with you.”

  She wants a friend, Sali thought.

  Vinia realized that another avenue was opening before her. She had become friends with a siren, a nickelpede, and a salamander. Why not a fire cloud? What counted was the person, not the form.

  “Yes, I’ll be your friend,” Vinia told Fiera.

  The cloud brightened, radiating wisps of orange vapor. “Oh, thank you!” She floated away.

  “You’re nice,” Sali said, somewhat surprised.

  Chapter 9

  Ghosts, etc.

  Vinia moved on to her next host: a ghost. She wasn’t certain about this, but then she had not been certain of the other hosts, before she got to know them. Still, they had all been living creatures, while ghosts were, well, not exactly alive.

  She found herself in a nebulous region. It was somewhere, but where? Something was there, but what? “Hello?” she inquired uncertainly.

  The weird space answered. “Oh, you must be the recruiter! Ghrossclout told me you were coming. I’m Ghorgeous Ghost. It’s my nickname from when I was alive. You know, Gorgeous.” She evidently omitted the H with an effort.

  “I’m Vinia Human, in astral form,” she answered, relieved.

  “Hello, Vhinia.”

  “Uh, yes.” Then, because she remained uncertain, Vinia passed the intangible ball to the other. “How did the professor get to know you, to set this up?”

  “We are in a haunted house in what you call Mhundania. But—”

  “Mundania!” No wonder the environment seemed strange. “But there’s no magic there!”

  The ghost made a hollow laugh. “Two things. One is that there is some magic in Mhundania. It’s just that the locals don’t believe it. They see things like the rhainbow, which can be seen from only one side, and try to make up reasons for that impossibility. They see the magic of perspective, where the more distant things move to keep up with a traveler while the close things don’t, and think it’s an illusion, instead of the plain fact that the more distant things can’t be stopped from moving, so take advantage of that. Mhundanes simply refuse to believe what they see, the more fools they. I know how they are in denial about magic, because I was one of them, in life. The other reason is that ghosts are not magic; we are chained spirits.”

  That made sense, maybe. “Oh. Sorry I interrupted you. What were you saying?”

  The ghost picked up exactly where she had broken off. “But our haunted house is about to be demolished. We are desperate, because we are chained to our place of death, and if the house goes, we will be caught haunting thin air. What a ghastly fate! So I went to take the professor’s class, to learn what to do.”

  Vinia was bemused by the use of words that actually had an H in the second spot, like Ghastly and What. There were surely others. But she had another question. “If you are chained there in Mundania, how did you take Grossclout’s class?”

  Ghorgeous made the ghost of a smile. “We are bound, but we can move about. It’s like elastic: it can be stretched, but the farther it lengthens, the tighter it becomes. So I put all my effort into reaching the classroom, and when the Demon entered I called ‘Please! I want to take your class!’ And he used a spell that weakened the bond and enabled me to be somewhat free. Of course, I had to bribe him. Fortunately, I died at the height of my beauty, at age twenty-one, so I had the wherewithal. That’s why I was chosen to make the effort.”

  “Of course,” Vinia agreed, remembering Signal Siren. The Demon professor liked pretty girls. If only she knew how they bribed men! “But don’t you have to be, well, physical to do that sort of thing?”

  “I practiced making key parts touchable, beforehand. Lips, bosom, bottom. It requires strong focus but can be done for a few minutes at a time. It was enough.”

  What was so magic about those particular parts? But Vinia knew she was as usual doomed not to know until she grew up and joined the Adult Conspiracy, which was too late. “I’m not sure how I can help you. I’m just a garden-variety girl child with the talent of telekinesis, which I think wouldn’t work on a ghost. Certainly, I don’t have magic to free chained ghosts.”

  “Still, you may be able to. Ghrossclout believes you have a special talent for solving intractable problems. Also, you represent the Queendom of Thanx, whose approval we need if we are to move into its ramshackle house.”

  “For that you need Queen Demesne.”

  “But if you should ask her?”

  Vinia pondered that. “Maybe she would.” Then she remembered. “In fact I’m sure she would, because they need a defense against the invading dragons. They can fly, so ground-bound folk can’t stop them.”

  “We can float, which is similar to flying. I believe we could stop them, if they are at all spookable. We’ll certainly try.” Ghorgeous shrugged intangibly. “But come meet my housemates, so you know more about our situation.”

  “But I still don’t know how I can do anything,” Vinia protested. “You need magic to get unbound.”

  “Not exactly. What we need is to solve the riddle of my murder, and gain justice, so that that unfinished business will no longer anchor us here.”

  “I don’t know a thing about murder mysteries.”

  “Yet the Demon thinks you may find an avenue. He suspects you have a talent for finding avenues.”

  Vinia sighed inwardly. Others had such beliefs in her, but she had just been lucky, and luck was not her magic, even if some magic worked in Mundania. But what could she do except try? “Tell me about your murder.”

  “We don’t know it was murder, but Ghrossclout thinks so, and if it was an accident, we should not be bound here. What happened was that the night before I was to marry my sweetheart, a car was left running in the garage, and the house was closed up because it was a cold night, and the carbon monoxide wiped out all twelve of us.”

  “Twelve? Carbon paper?”

  Ghorgeous laughed again. “Carbon monoxide. It’s a poisonous gas. We were having a girl party, a bunch of my friends and me, and my parents were sleeping upstairs, so the house was full. Someone must have forgotten to turn off the motor, and the fumes spread into the house. It seemed like a horrible accident.”