Part 38 (2/2)
The next floor down turned out to be a high balcony of a giant ballroom. There was music wafting up from an orchestra, and couples were dancing below.
Couples? She had somehow thought this castle was empty, aside from Fornax and Earth, except for the raiders and the guards. So what was going on here?
”I love it!” Venus said. ”We must join them.”
”And give ourselves away?” But Breanna felt the love too. Dancing was one of the things lovers did. She had never really danced with Justin. Unless she counted the time near the beginning when he had been unsteady on his feet, and she had played a game of hugging and kissing him every time he stumbled. That had been fun. He had been nearly a century old, but childlike in his inexperience with love.
”Love!” Venus thought avidly. ”You love!”
And Venus had been primed with that emotion. ”For sure. We're about to be married.”
”I want to get married!”
”I don't think Demons do that.”
”What of Xanth?”
”He fell in love. I guess you're right; Demons can do it, if they have a mind to. But your emotion will fade when this game is done and the Swell Foop goes out of play.”
”I don't want to lose it. I must keep it.”
Breanna pondered. ”I suppose if Xanth could learn it, so could you. Try to remember exactly what this feeling of love is like, so you don't lose it.”
”Tell me of your scenes of love with Justin Tree.”
”Well, we haven't consummated it yet. That comes half an instant after the wedding. We have done some necking and petting, but that's not the same thing as love. Really, it's just being together when you're in love.”
”How was it?”
Breanna thought back to that early sequence, reliving it. They had found flying suits, then almost run afoul of a tangle tree with a nymph with tangled hair. She got back into the scene, enjoying the memory.
Farther along in the forest was a handsome yellow stallion. They paused in their chronic kissing to admire him. ”You don't see many straight horses here,” Justin remarked.
”I don't see many kissing couples here, either,” the horse replied.
Both looked at him more closely, startled. ”Did you talk?” Breanna asked.
”Of course I talked. But you started it. I don't suppose you have a nice filly for me to kiss?”
”I'll kiss you,” Breanna said. ”If you tell me who you are and how you came here.”
”I belonged originally to Achilles, but he had a foot problem and died. He was Greek, incidentally. Since then I have wandered a bit. This seemed like a nice land, so I am grazing it for a while.”
”Achilles' talking horse!” Justin exclaimed. ”You are famous.”
”I wouldn't know about that. I don't normally talk to strangers, but you provoked me.”
”We didn't mean to,” Breanna said. ”We apologize, gourd style.” She reached up to hug his head and plant a kiss on his nose. Horses of any kind liked girls' kisses.
”Where is this gourd you speak of?”
Breanna looked around. ”It's an entry to the realm of dreams. They do have dream horses there. You might want to investigate.” She spotted a gourd. ”There's one! But one thing about them: You don't want to stay at the peephole too long, because-”
She stopped, because Xanthus had walked to the gourd, put his eye down, and disappeared into it.
”Then again, maybe you are a dream horse,” she concluded. Then she turned to Justin. ”Where were we?”
”I think we were about to kiss.”
”That's it! Thanks for reminding me.” She kissed him.
A harpy landed on a nearby branch. ”Disgusting!” she screeched. ”Haven't you idiots anything better to do than smooch all day?”
”No,” Justin said dreamily.
”No? How would like some p.o.o.p on your head, bleep-brain?”
”If you can't say anything positive, I'll smooch you,” Breanna said evenly.
The harpy almost fell off her perch. ”No thanks! I'm not of that persuasion. I'll take a goblin any day.”
”A goblin?”
”Don't you know, pantywaist?” the harpy screeched. ”There are so precious few males of our kind, we go after goblins now. They have the other halves of our magic talents. They provide the definition, we provide the strength. Together we can do anything.”
”No you can't,” Breanna said hotly. ”You can't have any talents that have been had before.”
”That's all you know, soot-face. Talents can occur up to once per species, per generation. We researched it. We have a lot of talents to go.”
”How about the talent of getting lost?”
”We can have that too, smooch-for-brains. I'll show you.” The harpy spread her dirty wings and took off.
”That was clever,” Justin murmured.
”Well, I'm not nearly as dull as I seem.” She kissed him again.
They continued in similar manner until they got where they were going. They celebrated that event by kissing again, and went on with their lives.
”So you see, without love, it's pretty pointless,” Breanna concluded. ”But with love, it's completely fulfilling.”
”I must go kiss someone!”
”I don't think that's wise.” But Breanna was swept along by the Demoness's eager new emotion. They made their way down the stairs that circled the ballroom. Could any of the dancers be guards? But there were only seven guards remaining, and there were dozens of dancers.
Then at the foot of the steps she spied a handkerchief. ”That looks like Justin's!” She picked it up and sniffed it. ”It is Justin's. He's here!”
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