John Varley - Wizard

"I can't stay long," she said. "In fact, it might have been a mistake to come here at all. However, here I am."

If she had intended to mystify him, she couldn't have done a better job. Her hands were nervously fiddling with the edge of her pouch, something that was hard for Chris to watch. Her thumbs hooked in the edge of it, and she stretched it out like the elastic band on a pair of bathing trunks.

"I've been upset since I realized that you ... you really don't remember the hundred revs we spent together after I found you wandering beneath Cirocco's Stairs, after your Big Drop."

"How long is a hundred revs?"

"A little over four days, in your reckoning. One rev is sixty-one minutes."

"That's quite a while. Did we have a good time?"

She glanced up at him, then resumed her fumbling.

"I did. You said you did, too. What has bothered me is that you might have the impression that I was using you solely for a good-luck charm, as I said when you first returned to your senses."

Chris shrugged. "It wouldn't bother me if you had. And if I brought you good luck, I'm glad I did."

"That isn't it." She bit her lower lip, and Chris was surprised to see a tear, quickly wiped away. "Gaea curse me," she moaned, "I can't say it right. I don't even know what I'm trying to say, except thank you. Even though you don't remember." She dug into her pouch and came out with something which she pressed into his hand. "This is for you," she said, and stood and was gone practically before he knew what had happened. He opened his hand and looked at the Titanide egg. Its dominant color was yellow, like Valiha herself, but there were swirls of black. There was an inscription on its hard surface, in tiny, spidery English characters:

Valiha (Aeolian Solo) Madrigal: Long-Odds Major

26th Gigarev; 97,628,6851 Rev (Anno Domini 2100)

"Gaea Says Not Why She Spins."

"If you're worried about a paternity suit," Cirocco said, "you can forget it. Titanides don't work that way."

"I didn't mean ... maybe I'm expressing myself badly."

Chris was in Cirocco's canoe. He sat toward the middle while the Wizard lolled in the bow. Her head was on a pillow. There were puffy blue bags under her eyes, and her complexion was unhealthy. Even so, it was a great improvement on a few hours ago. Chris had elected to travel with Cirocco with the intent of quizzing her about Human-Titanide sex but had put it off when he saw her face.

He was not the only one to switch boats. Gaby was now riding with Hautbois and Robin, while Valiha and Psaltery led the flotilla in canoes that rode high in front.

They had passed beneath Cirocco's Stairs, an experience Chris could have done without. The massive cable hanging above him had taken him back to the Golden Gate on that windy day when Dulcimer set his feet on the path which led to Gaea. Cirocco's Stairs looked like a bridge cable. In place of the tower, however, there was just the gaping conical mouth of the Rhea Spoke, dwindling into infinity and taking the unseen cable with it. The cable was an exponential curve, a geometric abstraction made real. A dozen Golden Gates set end to end could not have spanned its terrible immensity.

Now they were a few minutes from the confluence of Ophion with the river Melpomene. Already the waters moved a little faster, eager to challenge the Asteria Mountains, darkly visible in the east

Chris looked away from the river and tried again.

"For one thing, I know she's already pregnant. I'm presuming a child is not at issue. Am I right in that?"

"You're still thinking in terms of mommies and daddies," Cirocco said. "What you are here is a potential forefather, and Valiha a potential foremother. The egg could be implanted in ... oh, say Hornpipe, for instance, and he'd be the hindmother, then any of the other three could fertilize it, including Valiha."

"Not until I knew you a lot better," Hornpipe said from the rear of the boat.

"This isn't funny to me," Chris said.

"I'm sorry. A child is definitely not at issue. One, I wouldn't approve it. Two, no Titanide would even start a proposal for a child without much more thought. And three, you've got the egg."

"Then what is at issue here? Is there a great significance to the gift? What is she telling me?"

Cirocco did not look as though she really wanted to answer questions, but she sighed and relented.

"It does not necessarily mean anything. Oh, it means she likes you, that's certain. For one thing, she wouldn't have made love to you unless she did, but she wouldn't have given you the egg unless she still did. Titanides are sentimental, see? Walk into any Titanide home, and you'll find a rack of these on the wall. Not one in a thousand ever gets used or is even intended for use. They're common as ... as condoms on lover's lane."

Hornpipe made a loud raspberry.

"It was a rather low image, wasn't it?" Cirocco managed to grin.

"What's a condom?"

"Before your time, huh? A one-time prophylactic. Anyway, the analogy is apt. Every time a female has frontal intercourse one of these pops out two hectorevs later. That's two hundred revs, in case they aren't still teaching the metric system where you come from. You know, it's a hell of a note when a Titanide knows what a condom is-he's never seen one!-and a human doesn't. What do they teach you? That history started in 2096?"

"Actually, I think they include 2095 now."

Cirocco massaged her forehead and smiled weakly.

"Sorry. I digress. Your education or lack of it is none of my business. Back to Titanides ... most of the eggs get thrown away. If not immediately, then during the next spring cleaning. Some are kept for the sentimental value, long after they've expired. They last about five years, by the way.

"What you have to bear in mind is the dual nature of Titanide sex. Hind sex is for two purposes, one much more common than the other. One is sheer recreation: hedonism. They do it publicly. The other purpose is procreation, when they're allowed to, which is not nearly as often as they'd like. Frontal sex is different. Very seldom is it done just to make an egg. Almost always it's an expression of close friendship or love. Not precisely the love you and I know because Titanides don't pair-bond. But they do love. That's one of the things I know for sure, and my list of those things is short. A Titanide will hind-sex with someone he or she would not dream of front-sexing with. Frontal sex is sacred.

"Now this has been relaxed some when dealing with humans, who can't hind-sex. The more liberal elements of Titanide thought hold that it is moral to have frontal sex with a human for fun. It should still be done in private, but one doesn't need to love the human or be close friends. Hornpipe?"

"This is true," the Titanide said.

"Why don't you take over?" Cirocco suggested. "I've got a headache."

When Chris turned around, Hornpipe stopped paddling for a moment and spread his hands.

"There isn't much more to say. Cirocco covered it well."

"Then you're saying the egg is just a keepsake. The reason Valiha seemed upset was that I had forgotten what happened. She isn't in love with me."

"Oh, no, I'm saying nothing of the sort. Valiha is an old-fashioned girl who has never had sex with a human. She loves you desperately."

In Gaea, stormy weather caused the nights to steal more land than they normally occupied. As the party passed the mouth of the Melpomene, they entered an area normally classed as a twilight zone. Now it was night.

But night in Gaea could never become total. In clear weather, even the center of Rhea was as bright as an Earthly night with a full moon. Under clouds the gloom thickened but never became impenetrable. The land in the foothills of the Asteria Mountains was lit by a soft glow from above the cloud layer. Lanterns were set in niches to the rear of the canoes. The group traveled on.