Dennis knew he must be nearing the dome, because the jungle was very far below when he leaned out and looked. If he turned his head to peer upward, he saw nothing but sky and the sun-dazzling eave molding of the tower's next layer above.
Dennis was breathing quickly now. Tired from the climb, he was sure, but—nervous also. Very nervous.
He looked at Chester. "Do you have any wisdom for an old pupil, my friend?" he asked jokingly.
"Do not undertake any task and then carry it out badly," the robot obediently quoted.
The youth's wry smile became a real one. "We won't do it badly," he said, squeezing the tentacle Chester offered him. "We'll do it right."
If it kills me, his mind added.
Three steps higher, and Dennis saw the stairs meet a floor of rainbow glass. There was no door at the top, only a rectangular slot.
Through the slot, Dennis could see his own distorted features reflected from the concave inner surface of the dome which covered the spire of rock.
"There'll be something waiting right there for us," Dennis said musingly. "Ready to get us as soon as our heads come over the edge of the floor."
"Do you wish me to go before you, Dennis?" Chester asked.
Dennis thought... Thought of Chester flying through the air, struck by Malduanan's leg as he lunged to save his master's life; Chester wreathed in blue fire, his limbs flailing wildly as he blocked the lightning bolt Rakastava meant for Dennis.
Chester crumbling into rust, struck by the baton as Dennis dangled helplessly from the ceiling that was part of Mother Grimes.
"No," he said quietly. "Thank you, Chester. But this one's mine."
He poised, then rushed up the remaining stairs with the robot behind him.
CHAPTER 62
Nothing attacked as they burst out onto the smooth glass floor.
Aria ran toward them from the large pavilion beneath the center of the dome.
"Oh, Dennis!" she called as her slippers twinkled over the mirroring floor. "Oh my love, you've won!"
The glass above Dennis had a pebbled appearance. Its outer surface was beaded with water wrung from low clouds and the wind-lifted spray. The youth glanced up, saw himself shrunken and foreshortened; and looked back with a hard expression at what seemed to be his wife.
The only structure within the dome was the one from which Aria had come, a flat-roofed circle of ornamented marble columns. The pavilion was reflected from the concave dome to the floor and back again—hundreds of times—in a rosette, like the pattern of reality glimpsed through a bee's eye.
And in every image, a distorted princess scuttled to meet an equally monstrous youth.
"Wait!" Dennis shouted. His right hand touched his sword hilt—snatched itself away as intellect overcame instinct—and patted back, though without drawing the weapon.
Aria paused with a look of amazement on her face. "Darling?" she said. Then, "Ooh! What are those?"
The manikins had shuffled up the last of the staircase. They hissed and bubbled softly, their faceless visages turned toward Dennis like the eyes of retainers in Emath Palace.
"What are you?" Dennis said harshly. "Just like them, aren't you? One more trick."
Aria's face jerked back as though Dennis had slapped her. "What do you mean?" she said. "I—Oh. Did you lose your memory when the sea hag held you? I'm your wife, darling. You've saved me from the sea hag."
She stepped toward Dennis again with a radiant expression and her arms spread wide.
"Wait!" Dennis screamed. He thrust the baton out in front of him to ward away the princess. "You're not really Aria!"
"Dennis?" Aria said in bewilderment. "Of course I'm Aria. You've reached the heart of the sea hag's power, and she's surrendered me to get you to leave. There's a boat on the shore that we can take wherever we please."
Dennis' mouth was dry. The baton was shaking so badly that he clasped his right hand over his left to control it. "I don't think you're really Aria," he said, enunciating very carefully. "I think you're another, another sending from the sea hag, like, like those."
He nodded toward the manikins with an awkward twitch of his head, but he couldn't bring himself to take his eyes away from Aria—what looked to them to be Aria.
"Those things?" Aria said in horror and amazement. "Dennis, are you all—"
"Now, I'm going to touch you with this," Dennis said firmly. He stared at the end of the baton, so that the princess's figure blurred beyond it. "It won't hurt you if you, if you're Aria..."
"It will just turn me into something like—them," the woman said with icy unconcern. "Very well, Dennis. I was willing to forfeit my life to save yours. I just didn't realize that you'd be the one to destroy me yourself."