Iris

'That artsy, interactive thing you were working on back home?' She considered it, seeming dubious. 'I don't think so. It's just not . . . real. I don't go in for that kind of stuff.'

''That kind of stuff,' indeed!' He laughed and, standing, stretched out a hand to her. 'Come on. You'll like it, I promise....'

'But ...'

'Come on. It really is a lot better than what you get over the entertainment 'nets.' She held back for a moment, then said, 'Well . . . what the hell. Why not?' They went to the man's room and he activated his Shipnet access points and took out a set of induction leads. 'No circlets for this, I'm afraid. How many can you handle?'

'Four, in Binary.'

The Arab felt vaguely surprised. She would have to go along as a passive element. 'OK. I can get you in using one of the adapter subplots that Brendan made for me.' It might well be better this way. She'd have absolutely no control over what was going on and so would have to accept his version of reality without question.

They hooked up, plugged in, and he thought out his sequence of access codes in the high-level language Sealock had created:

Call Tri-vesigesimal. Activate 8(3y)i::5-mixer Node-network 501AA227::SysMat 'Bright Illimit' Install Rider Unit .001 Call Uplink Assist. Call AI. com 'Darius.' SetPiece l::Transact::'Demogorgon-en-Arhos . . .'

They submerged.

Demogorgon en Arhos and Vana ten Exqrai stood on a marble balcony of the silent palace, looking down over a brilliant panorama. Arhos, the Jeweled City on the Mountain, fell at their feet in a series of shining terraces that were crowded with graceful, multicolored buildings. The sky was a fathomless wash of pale sapphire that descended to a yellow-orange horizon far beyond the Plain of the Twelve Cities, andthe twin red suns, almost touching, were high overhead. To the south, in the middle distance, the jade-green waters of the Tovoreng River could be seen, flowing toward Arheinzei and the Salqxel Sea. A soft breeze sprang up, carrying a smell like mimosa and creating waves in the diaphanous curtains that were behind them.

Examining the scene, Vana gasped, 'Oh! It's so beautiful, Demogorgon!' She turned to face the man, momentarily surprised that she could move so freely in this image, and her eyes widened. 'Is that you?' Demogorgon was tall and slender, well muscled and handsome, with the face of an immortal. . . . He was clad in a harness encrusted with topaz and emerald, and the buckler-held sword at his side was of some shining yellow metal, not gold but something finer. He laughed at her thunderstruck expression, and gestured at her body.

She was almost naked, clad only in a pair of silver breastplates that clung magically to her flesh and a wide, soft belt that supported a fine, jeweled dagger. Her body was slim now, much like Ariane's admired shape, but somehow superior. It seemed less filled with that loathsome animalness. . . . 'This can't be real!'

Demogorgon laughed out loud. 'It is real if I say it is.'

She spun around, drinking in the scenery, marveling at its almost palpable presence. 'But . . . this is nothing like anything I've ever seen on the 'net!'

'I told you that before we came. This is real.'

'Real?' She seemed puzzled. 'And we can just ... go out there? We're not limited to this room, or to some predetermined plot?'

He smiled thinly. 'You'll see. . . .'

A voice from behind brought them about. ' Arhn-he kuraai ! Welcome back, my lord. Your absence has been felt.' A man with black and silver hair, beautiful in a hawkish sort of way, was hurrying toward them.

Demogorgon put his hand on the man's shoulder. 'Good to be back, Savvrenash! What has befallen the realm?'

Before the Arhosian could answer, Vana stepped toward him, waving a hand before his face. 'Will he react to me?'

Savvrenash looked at her strangely, a frown deepening the delicate lines of his face. 'And who is this, my lord?'

'A noble visitor from far Exqrai. She is my guest.' Demogorgon was smiling and the other man bowed deeply to her.

Vana was suddenly embarrassed. 'Sorry,' she said. 'I didn't know . . .' Turning to his master again, Savvrenash said, 'It is as it always has been. All the borders are . . . manifest. The world runs in its cycles of savagery.' He shrugged, glancing out across the near featureless plain, then looked back at them. 'I have word that the gala in Hraas is starting this sevenhour, if you'd care to attend.'