'You're not what I expected,' the pleasantly surprised Oskar told the homunculus. 'You seem—almost normal.'
'Don't be taken in by my attitude, ha.' Wiliam put both hands behind his back, interlocking and waggling his hairy fingers. 'I'm really a terrible person.'
'Yes, I can see that.' It was Mamakitty's turn to smile. But not too broadly, lest she frighten their guide away.
'Everyone else thinks I'm mad,' Wiliam put in for good measure. 'I'm not, you know. I just don't find everything so—funny.'
'I'm surprised they haven't tried to marigold you.' As he spoke, Oskar was gathering up his small pack and water bag.
'Oh, they have, they have,' their guide assured him. 'It just doesn't seem to work on me.' He almost, but not quite, managed a real frown. 'I don't find the world very amusing.' Turning, he pointed across the farm's neat fields toward the distant forest. 'We need to move fast if we are to avoid Nugwot's followers. It would be best to be deep into the woods before they return on the morrow, when they are likely to bring even greater numbers with them.'
He hardly chuckled at all when he spoke, Oskar noted. 'Then we'll travel by night and not sleep until morning.' Behind him, he heard Cezer sniff.
'Suits me. I'd just as soon be up at night as during the day. Lead on, good Wiliam, and we will follow— amusedly, or not.'
The homunculus eyed him speculatively. 'Moving at night through thick forest doesn't worry you?'
'Not us.' Cocoa exuded confidence. 'Nearly all of us see rather better in the dark than you might think. And as Cezer says, we
Amid a subdued chorus of chuckles and good wishes, they bade farewell to their uncommonly grumpy benefactors Tilgrick and Myssa, and in the company of their good-natured guide, started off in single file across the tillage. Moments later, they entered the tree line and found themselves walking at a respectable pace through woodland rich in cheerful foliage and giddy, if largely unseen, fauna.
Scanning the upper reaches of the trees, Oskar detected movement but little in the way of discernible shape. 'So even the animals'—how strange to employ a term previously used by others to refer to himself, he mused —'hereabouts are riven by laughter?'
Short of stride but effusive of energy, Wiliam glanced back from his position in the lead. 'In the Kingdom of Orange, mirth and merriment are the lifeblood of existence. One who laughs large is admired and respected. Those who laugh little are suspect. Anyone like myself, who finds very little in the world worthy of a chuckle, is made to feel an outcast by such as those who are likely to pursue us.' He shrugged small, rounded, distinctively hairy shoulders. 'I don't mind. I like being by myself. Frankly, I don't see what's so funny.'
'Lucky for us you know the ways through the forest.' Mamakitty made a conscious attempt to flatter their guide, on whose continued goodwill they were so dependent.
Wiliam looked over at her. 'One forced to dwell in the woods soon learns their ways. I'm glad to be able to help. Tell me—in the kingdom you come from, could someone like myself survive? Would I be accepted even though I laugh but rarely?'
Oskar recalled some of the late Master Evyndd's more dour visitors, long-faced men and women for whom sorceral knowledge was the be-all and end-all of existence. Based on what he had seen, looking up from the Master's feet, it would take a magic spell or two just to
'I think there are places where you might fit right in, yes. But our 'kingdom' is very different from yours in many ways you can't imagine.' He eyed the short, heavily bearded gnome thoughtfully. 'I'm sure you would be accepted, but you might not be very comfortable with the manner of acceptance.'
'Oh so?' Without breaking stride, their guide passed beneath an orange-blue tree. Everyone else had to duck to clear the stiff branches. As Oskar passed underneath, he could have sworn he heard one branch whispering to another, 'Have you heard the one about the redwood and the spruce bush?'
'Then maybe it's better I stay here,' Wiliam was saying. 'I am tempted, though. You folk seems such good and kind, such normal people.'
Cocoa laughed softly. The purring giggle caused flowers hanging from a nearby tree to bend delightedly in her direction. 'Wiliam, you have no idea.'
While it was impossible to tell for certain how much ground they had covered, it was not so very many days before they began to notice a definite lightening of the colors surrounding them. Perhaps the Kingdom of Orange was not so great , in extent as the Kingdom of Red, Oskar mused. Or maybe it was because, with a local to guide them, they were traveling in a straight line across the breadth of the territory. While the humidity remained oppressive, within the shadow of the forest canopy it was not unbearable. Certainly the subtle shift in colors was as perceptible as it was abrupt.
'We are approaching the Kingdom of Yellow,' Wiliam informed them in response to their queries concerning the current chromatic imparity. 'Unlike the frontier we share with the crimson kingdom to the west, here there is no river to mark the boundary. By this afternoon you will find yourselves marching through a new color, in a new land.'
A perceptible jauntiness had entered Taj's step, notwithstanding the slight jaundice that seemed to have infected everyone's appearance. 'I think I should be quite at home in the Kingdom of Yellow.' He grinned in anticipation. 'I'm looking forward to having my natural coloring back, if only until we pass into the kingdom after that.'
'Which, I imagine, would be the Kingdom of Green.' Those limbs and branches Samm could not duck beneath, he effortlessly pushed aside. 'We are making good progress.'
'I don't know what lies beyond the Kingdom of Yellow.' Wiliam expressed his regrets. 'We all of us cling to our respective homelands. But you will find the yellow lands as different from here as the country of orange is from the aggressive Kingdom of Red.'
'In what way?' Oskar inquired.
'Well, for one thing—' Wiliam began.
He did not have an opportunity to finish either the sentence or the explanation. Without warning, several figures emerged from the undergrowth directly ahead to block the travelers' path. Despite the deep orange cast the local light gave to their skin and the curving dark glasses they wore to shield their eyes from the light of the sun, they were immediately recognizable.
Oskar's right hand dropped to the hilt of his sword. Behind him, his companions likewise made ready to draw their weapons. Samm unslung the great axe from his back.
More puzzled than startled, Wiliam looked from the newcomers to his tall friends. 'You know these people?'
'We have made each other's acquaintance.' There was neither lightness nor levity in the words Oskar directed to those blocking the trail. 'Hello, Quoll. What brings you and your tailless puke-pail pals to this part of the world-run?'
Behind the quoll, Ruut and Ratha stiffened but said nothing. Quoll gestured diffidently. 'You, of course. Did you think we would give up simply because you managed to stumble into a rainbow? When I explained what had transpired to the Khaxan Mundurucu, they soon determined what had occurred, and through the appropriate incantation made it possible for us to follow you even here. The difference is, we entered the same rainbow as you, but via a different color. This color. The Mundurucu said this would be the best place to enter, to confront you. As you see, they were right. The Khaxan Mundurucu are always right.' He smiled down his rodentlike nose. 'Please to understand, there is no escaping them even in these strange lands of color.'
Leaning in Oskar's direction, Mamakitty whispered tersely to her friend. 'That's interesting: the 'Khaxan Mundurucu' is a 'they' not an individual.'
'Such information is of no use to you,' Ruut declared unpleasantly, overhearing her whisper easily, 'since you're going to die anyway.'
'I think not.' As Oskar drew his sword, the sound was echoed by that of his companions drawing their own weapons.
'Or have you forgotten that before we entered the moonbow, we easily kept you three flouncing cadavers at bay?' Beside him, Wiliam's gaze was flicking warily from the travelers he knew to the three menacing strangers he
