Jumper Cable (31 page)

“Are you interested in me now?”

“Yes, as I said.”

“I mean, why are you interested now, when you were faking it before?”

“When Pluto dumped me, I realized that he was a lying male who had played me along without ever intending to get serious. I also realized that you are an honest male. You would not lie to me. I can trust you. I like that. You have other qualities to recommend you, as did your ancestor Jumper, but that was the turning point.”

“You trust him?” Eris asked, surprised.

“Yes. He’s not like me.”

“So it seems.” Was Eris actually impressed? Why? But Jumper had a more immediate question. “How can I believe you?”

“I said that before too: marry me.”

“Not before I complete the mission.”

She nodded. “You have always been open about that. So here’s the deal. Marriage after. Forgiveness before.”

That seemed to make sense. “I forgive you.” And he did, for she was right about his weakness: he could not tell a lie. And he did like her, and wanted to be with her, despite her nature. Despite knowing better. She kissed him on the cheek. Then she spoke in a low tone that only he could hear. “I happen to know something about the mechanism Pluto used to invoke those men. They are not pure inventions; he lacks the imagination. They are takes on living men whose details are as represented. They were put into sleep and summoned to the communal dream, where they interacted with your girls. I think the men are quite taken with the girls, but they believe they are merely dream girls.”

Jumper looked at her. “Can we reach those men?”

“Eris can. She can trace the connections Pluto made, and locate them, and conjure them here. The rest would be up to your girls.”

“They will be able to handle it,” he said.

“But there needs to be a framework for interaction. It’s the human way; I have observed it over the centuries. A ball, perhaps.”

“They would play with a ball?”

She smiled. “A fancy dance. Dawn can surely or ga nize that.”

“Thank you.”

“A kiss would convey the sentiment better.”

Oh. He started to take her into his arms, awkwardly. Then it became supremely un-awkward as she melted into his embrace and kissed him with the kind of passion he had not experienced since— since Phanta, not long ago. She was being the woman she could be, and that was a great deal of woman.

After he caught his breath and equilibrium, he addressed Eris, who had waited with Demonic patience. “Trace down and conjure here the

six— no, the five men who dated Wenda, Maeve, Olive, Phanta, and Eve in our dreams. Provide suitable clothing for them so they can attend the ball without embarrassment.”

“Delete mine,” Eve said. “My interest is not in the centaur, but in the one who governed him.”

Oh. “The four.”

“That will take four moments.”

But in half a moment someone else appeared. This was an old, crooked, but still spry man carry ing a long staff or pole.

“Charon!” Sharon exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“Fetching you away from here, little sister,” Charon said. “You must not serve the interest of any Demon but Pluto.”

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Sharon protested.

“We shall see.” Charon faced her, raising his staff. A horrible power emanated from it.

Sharon shrank back, evidently knowing and fearing that power. Jumper thought he should do something, but he had no idea what. If Pluto was a Dwarf Demon, Charon was a Mini-Demon, but still way beyond anything Jumper could handle.

Then Haughty flew across the chamber, converting to Hottie. She smacked into Charon, kiss first. It was so hot that wisps of steam curled up from the contact.

The Demon stepped back, but Hottie stayed with him, her kiss heating into smokiness. Little hearts . . . no, planets . . . no, coins orbited their heads.

Charon backed into an ice wall, which started to melt, but Hottie continued to kiss him. Jumper doubted he had been kissed so hotly in centuries.

Finally he managed to break it off. “All right!” he gasped. “You win.” He cast aside his staff and transformed into a male harpy. It seemed he was another shape changer, like his sister. The two harpies flew up to a rafter and perched. Then they settled into some serious necking, making feathers fly.

“She saved me,” Sharon breathed. “He would have sent me across the Styx.”

“His stick is on the floor,” Jumper said. “Are there other sticks?”

She gazed at him. “And that is what I like most about you: your innocence. No, the Styx is the river that borders Hades, Pluto’s domain. Now let’s see to the ball.”

They returned their attention to the preparations. The several moments had evidently passed, and there were four men standing in the hall, looking slightly baffled. Jumper recognized them: Warren Warrior, Prince Charming, Dick Philip, and Shepherd. Maeve was talking to Warren, Wenda to Charming, Olive to Dick Philip, and Phanta with Shepherd, explaining the situation. When the men started kissing the girls, Jumper knew it was working out. Eris had succeeded in meeting Eve’s second demand.

Only Eve stood apart, lovely but alone.

One more man appeared, stout and strong with a vaguely doglike visage. “The Demon Pluto himself!” Sharon whispered ner vous ly. “He can be a real canine when crossed.”

“Who has interfered with my minion Charon?” Pluto growled peremptorily.

“I did, you t**d from h**l!” Haughty screeched from the rafter. He whirled on her, sighting up as if aiming a rifle, not that such things existed in Xanth. “You, birdbrain?”

“Me, you s*n of a b**ch!” she screeched back. “He’s not your minion anymore.”

Pluto swelled up like a fire from the netherworld.

“Well, now, impostor,” Eris said.

The fire evaporated. “You!”

“You have wandered into my temporary domain,” Eris said. “You have no power here, traitor. Begone, like the treasonous cur you are.”

Eve looked pained. “Please,” she said.

Dawn picked up on it immediately. “Eris, for the sake of the deal we are making,” she said. “Can’t we have a truce, at least for the ball?”

Meanwhile Eve was taking Pluto’s hand. “We are having a party here. I would appreciate it if you joined in. Please make a temporary truce with Eris.”

Both Demons glowered. Both princesses smiled persuasively,

turning to display their charms. The Demon slowly melted, and the De mon ess reluctantly yielded. Now Jumper saw that there was nothing incidental in the way Eve addressed Pluto. When she moved, parts of her body showed, seemingly by accident, and her mannerisms were those of a girl desperately in love with the man she addressed. All the seductive devices the girls had discovered and practiced were being subtly focused on the Demon. Nothing was being wasted. What a display! She was absolutely lovely, and worse, sexy.

It was working too. Pluto was not freaking out, but his attention was riveted. Eve was Seduction Incarnate. No man could have withstood the sheer force of her appeal, and it seemed no Demon either. She was invoking his most ardent desire. A soulless Demon might not be capable of love, but he could be aroused. Pluto wanted her. Desperately.

“The girls are even better, working in tandem,” Sharon murmured.

“I never had much respect for mortal women, but I am learning it.”

She did not know the half of it. “Mortal women have their points,”

Jumper agreed, remembering Phanta.

Sharon slapped him, not hard. Somehow she had fathomed his memory. “I can do better than that. Keep your wandering fancy on me.”

“I will try,” he agreed apologetically.

“That’s better. Now let’s join the dance.”

For the chamber had metamorphosed into a gaudily decorated ballroom with colored lights and streamers. Music played from hidden recesses, and the partners were gliding out onto the central floor. The men were handsome in their newly crafted suits, and the girls were devastating in their flowing gowns. Dawn had evidently guided Eris well. Eris and Dawn did the first dance, and it did not seem strange that both were female. They whirled around the floor, their feet stepping intricately, their motions perfectly coordinated. They made a marvelously handsome couple.

Then Pluto and Eve joined the dance, similarly smooth. It was hard to judge which Demon was more stately, or which princess was lovelier. But Jumper saw that Eve was still working on Pluto, now pressing against him, now whirling teasingly away, now catching him with a fleeting kiss.

She was turning his own ploy against him, as the six angry damsels had rehearsed.

And the others, though considerably less polished, made up for it with enthusiasm. Maeve with Warren Warrior, Wenda with Prince Charming, Olive with the crazy writer Dick Philip, and Phanta with Shepherd. Haughty and Charon flew down from the rafter to whirl together in the air. And of course Sharon led Jumper into the dance. He knew nothing of dancing, but somehow she guided him through it so that he seemed competent. She was so light on her feet she seemed to float in his arms like a wisp of mist. In fact she was floating; her feet did not always touch the floor. Her hair sparkled as she turned, and her eyes held his. It was wonderful.

If he was not yet in abject love, he was being sorely besieged by the emotion. He knew this was not smart on his part, but Sharon was, almost literally, a dream come true. Only a faint warning awareness in the back of his mind restrained him.

Then Eris cut in, and Sharon grudgingly let him go. That spoiled the effect she had been making.

“Uh, why?” Jumper asked, bemused, as the De mon ess guided him gracefully around the floor.

“I have long been alone, and you are a decent male,” she replied candidly. “Too bad you’re not a prince.”

“Not only that, I’m not a man,” he said. “I’m a spider.”

“And I, like all Demons, am not bound by mortal limitations,” she said. “Change forms, if you wish.”

What was her point? He sipped a vial and reverted to his natural form. And found himself opposite another big spider. She had changed with him.

Well, now. Jumper did his thing, which was to jump. She jumped with him, matching his effort perfectly. Soon they were in a marvelous spider dance, while the other dancers fell back to watch.

“Why?” he clicked in spider talk.

“I like you. If you were a prince I would marry you, and not just because it would enable me to escape.”

Jumper found himself foolishly flattered. Meanwhile, he was absolutely loving this. Eris seemed to understand him in a way no other woman did. Certainly in a way no other spider would. When the dance ended, they changed back to human form. “Thank you,” Jumper said.

“It was a plea

sure.” She faded back, letting Sharon rejoin him. Somehow she impressed him less, not because she was less, but because Eris was more.

There were refreshments. They sat on the sideline, sipping boot rear, laughing at the boots. The scene seemed good. “I wish it could be like this always,” Jumper said.

“Do not be deceived,” Sharon said. “Until you accomplish your mission, nothing is decided. Not with the Demon, not with us.”

“Nothing decided,” he agreed with regret. She was a Demon, a very minor one, but a Demon nevertheless, without a soul, not to be trusted. Was she really interested in him, or was this merely another ploy to fascinate him so that he would have to do her bidding? No matter how many times he asked that question, he was never quite satisfied with the answer.

“But for the moment, we can enjoy ourselves.” She touched his hand. And, oddly, that single little touch was more compelling than much of what else had passed.

Yet Eris lingered in his awareness. The thing about Eris was that he had no reason to doubt her. As far as he knew, he could trust her. Then the music stopped. “It is time for the final negotiation,” Sharon said. “This is the one that counts.”

“Who has to do it?” he asked, fearing the answer.

“You, of course. You have a mission to complete.” Exactly as he had feared.

What choice did he have? “It is my job to complete the mission of repairing the cable connecting the Internet to the Outernet,” he said.

“Demon Pluto wishes to prevent this. De mon ess Eris wishes to escape confinement, which she can do if she marries a prince. So we suggest that if Eris finishes the Prophecy to enable us to complete our mission,

and this is successful, Dawn will locate a suitable mortal prince to marry her.”

“Agreed,” Eris said.

“Agreed,” Dawn said.

“And if I prevent it, I get Eve,” Pluto said.

“You have it backward,” Eve said. “If the mission is successful, I will marry you.”

“This is the issue,” Pluto said. “You have practiced your nefarious female arts on me, and compelled my fascination with your body, exactly as you planned. I want to win you without having to marry you. Then I will not inherit half your soul, and will not be governed by foolish scruples.”

“Oh, really!” Eve exclaimed. “That’s not my deal!”

“It seems to be the deal he proffers,” Jumper said, realizing that the Demon had found a loophole. “Marriage would severely limit him, so he wants your love without marriage.”

“Exactly,” Pluto said.

“Why should I agree to that?” she demanded.

“To get him committed to a deal,” Jumper said. “Demons are bound by nothing except the deals they make with other Demons. If Pluto has a chance to get you on his terms, he will make the deal.”

Eve pursed her lips, considering. “If we complete our mission, Eris wins, and marries a prince and escapes. I will marry Pluto, and bind him with my half soul, so he will treat me better than he treated Sharon. And you, Jumper, can marry Sharon, making a decent female of her.”

“That seems to be our offer,” Jumper agreed, though he was no longer absolutely sure he wanted to marry Sharon.

“And if you do not complete your mission,” Pluto said, “I will win. None of those three marriages will occur. I will have Eve to do with as I like, and Dawn will have no obligation to Eris, and Sharon will put a ring through Jumper’s nose and make him wish he had remained a spider.”

Jumper winced, knowing that none of the mortal participants were likely to enjoy that situation. “We need some limits on Pluto’s interference with the mission.”