Chapter 10: GlamorChapter 10: Glamor

ire."

Havoc stood to greet his visitor. "Lady Aspect."

"I am glad to see you well. Are you authentic?"

Havoc removed his crown for a moment, so that she could verify that his mind was present. He was not a golem. He was sure she could tell, but she was a careful woman. "What is your concern, Lady?" For she never bothered him without reason.

"I have completed my investigation of the lines of command. I have serious news."

Havoc braced himself for it. "I am ready, Lady."

"The majority of the officials of this kingdom are competent and loyal.

Thirteen are not. Two are in doubt. And I fear there is one more who I have not been able to identify. It is that one that concerns me, Sire. He may be the

one who betrayed my husband and who is betraying you."

"How can you know there is one, if you don't know his identity?"

"My husband died, and his betrayer was never known. Attempts have been made on your life."

"Perhaps they were warnings," Havoc said. "Intended to discourage me 494 Key to Havoc

from investigating the changelings."

She paused a moment, considering. "What makes you think that?"

"The fact that I survived. The enemy has shown considerable savvy and power, and perhaps could have taken me out if it chose to. Instead it made ineffective attacks on me and Gale, and did not follow them up. It might have felt that it was better off with an ignorant barbarian as king, than with a knowledgeable civilized king. So it warned me off, hoping I would behave.

But I suspect that its patience is limited."

She nodded. "This is possible. But it is also more than likely that you were simply better at avoiding mischief than the average ignorant barbarian."

She smiled, for the words were no insult, and she no longer tried to conceal her fondness for him. "You were on routine business at the time of the first attempt, so should have needed no warning off. However, you were seeking a tool to investigate my husband's death at the time of the second."

"My enemy may not have realized that. But I take your point: attempts have been made, from the outset. Someone must be keeping my enemy informed of my whereabouts. And Gale's."

"There is a traitor in our midst," she agreed. "And that is the one I have not found. But this is not the limit of my news."

"There is worse?"

"Yes, Sire. I have obtained advance information on the People's Petition. It has become a Crown Assessment."

"Oh, that report on my doings as king? I thought that was routine."

"Not this time. Sire, it is negative."

Havoc was surprised. "Negative? The people don't like me?"

"The people like you, I sincerely believe. So do the Chroma Representatives. But they have no power in the face of the Crown Assessment. It claims that both the people and the Chroma voted against your continued tenure as king." She blinked, and he saw that she was crying. "I am familiar with this process because of what happened to my husband. By some devious mechanism the routine People's Petition was suborned into this deadly attack on you. It is thoroughly corrupt, but there is no effective appeal from it. Sire, you will have to resign."

Havoc felt his jaw dropping. "I thought I couldn't quit without being executed for treason. They're letting me go?"

"They will let you save face. An official will inform you privately that you have completed your mandatory term, and are now free to resign with honor. If you do, they will let you retire with honor and live as a high ranking

but powerless citizen. If you do not, they will issue the report, and you will be

Piers Anthony 495

impeached."

"Impeached! On what grounds?"

"Incompetence. They did this with my husband, and he fought it and won. Then he died. That is why I say you must resign: if you expose the speciousness of this attack, they will find another way to be rid of you."

"They are getting serious! If they can't kill me, they hope to depose me, and if they can't depose me, they'll kill me again."

"Sire, if those prior attempts were warnings, and you survive impeachment, then the next attempt will be serious."

Havoc gazed at her. "I think I need advice."

"Sire, I thought you might. I can take you to see the former kings."

"The kings?"

"The ones who resigned rather than face dishonor or death. They are not bad men; in fact I believe that they were forced out because they were trying to be good kings. They keep their opinions to themselves, but I associate with their wives, and have read their minds. They are angry, but helpless,

knowing that there will be retribution if they try to make any protest. They are helpless; they have children to protect. But I think if you are circumspect,

they will provide you with their thoughts."

This was her first indication that she, too, had caught the mental disease, probably by design. No, the second; he had known on some level when he removed his crown to open his mind to her. "Aspect, you are a genius! That's exactly who I need to talk to."

"No, I am merely experienced. Havoc, I don't like this business at all. I loved my husband, and I love you. I hate bringing you this news."

He stepped toward her, opening his arms. They embraced, like mother and son. "I know you do, Lady. I love you too. You have helped me greatly, and I trust you absolutely."

"I want you to continue as king. But more than that, I want you to continue to live."

"Take me to the kings."

She disengaged. "I think you should not do this openly."

"They are in the city?"

She nodded. "There are three of them. I could ask them to gather together. To join their wives for a social event to which I will also bring you.

In this manner we can go to them. Sire, if you don't mind--"

"I'll be your manservant," he said.

"There are no secrets, ultimately. But for this purpose, this will do. It may mask your attendance long enough."

496 Key to Havoc

They were ready that afternoon. Berm activated the Havoc golem, and Gale activated the Gale golem to cover for his absence. Havoc, garbed as a husky palace servant, carried the Lady Aspect's errand box.

She took him shopping, trading a small non-magical gem stone for a nice length of cloth, and he carried it in the box. Then she decided to watch a new holograph show, and took him to her private booth at the show chamber. There were three men and three women already there. They stood when she entered, making formal bows, and she returned the gesture. "Set it down there, lad," she said to Havoc. "Then seal the door so that our entertainment is not disturbed."

"Yes, Lady." He placed the box, and closed the door, making sure it was tight. This was a soundproof chamber, for the showing of illusion holographs of the type Symbol had presented. Then he turned to face the others.

"This is King Havoc," Aspect said, without further ado. All six nodded.

Then, to him: "This is King Diamond. King Enterprise. King Cheer. I leave you to your dialogue, while their wives and I enjoy the show." She took her seat and faced the holograph, which was just forming at the other side of the chamber. The three other women joined her.

Havoc realized that this was a special enactment of a regular event. No doubt the four ex-queens formed a social group, having much in common.

He couldn't read their minds, because there were too many people here, but it was clear that they were comfortable with each other. This time they had brought in the men, as requested. It would not seem remarkable to outsiders.

"I am honored to meet you," Havoc said. "Your names are in my history text."

"And we are honored to meet you, Sire," King Diamond said. He was a portly older man. He seemed to not to question Havoc's identity, though Havoc was in servant's attire and was not wearing the crown. But surely the former kings had made it their business to recognize the current king by sight, and they well understood the need for privacy.

"Please, don't call me that," Havoc said. "You are my seniors in more than one respect."

They smiled understandingly. "What can we do for you, Havoc?" King Cheer asked. He was the middle king, of pleasant mien, but his eyes were serious.

"I need advice. I am to receive a negative Crown Assessment, but am not yet ready to step down. I did not want to be king, and do not wish to remain king, but my business is not yet finished. What should I do?"

"We have heard much of you," King Enterprise said. He was the young-Piers Anthony 497

est king, but still substantially older than Havoc. "You are called barbarian, but you seem to be uncommonly clever."

"I am ignorant, not stupid." It was his standard response.

They nodded, understanding perfectly. "What is to be the basis for the negation?" King Diamond asked.

"Incompetence."

All three burst out laughing. "They lack imagination," King Cheer said, and indeed he did seem cheery. "You are proving to be the most competent king of this century."

"I have barely kept up with events," Havoc said.

"You should have seen our first months!" King Diamond said. "And we were from the cities, long conversant with the system. Our challenges were less difficult than yours, too. But we found it awkward to adapt rapidly to the

sudden onset of seemingly absolute power."

"You seem to have a genius for coming up with novel but workable solutions," King Cheer said. "I suspect they expected a barbarian to be dazzled

by the joys of civilization, and to indulge in much food, many women, and pointless excesses of personal power. Instead you took immediate hold, surely dismaying them."

"I had excellent advice," Havoc said, glancing toward the Lady Aspect.

"Which you sought and heeded. You won the gratitude and loyalty of almost all of the people and officials you have encountered. Even King Deal's household staff. They had anticipated much worse from you."

"His death was no fault of theirs," Havoc said. "I felt that they could help me most, if I encouraged them."

The three kings nodded again. "So competence is not your problem,"

King Diamond said. "Except in this respect: you were too competent. You are on the way to taking back the crown."

"Taking it back?" Havoc asked. "They forced it on me."

King Enterprise gave him a straight gaze. "The king has been pretty much a figurehead in the past century. The real powers of the planet are anonymous and largely invisible. They choose the king, they run the kingdom, and they depose the king when he becomes inconvenient. It is competence, not incompetence, that makes him inconvenient. You are bidding fair to bring real power back into the hands of the king. That is why you must go."

There was substantial truth here. It answered a host of peripheral questions. "So as long as I play at being king, I'm all right, but if I try to make it

count, I'm not."

498 Key to Havoc

"Within reason," King Diamond agreed. "You don't want to make an obvious mockery, because then it would become apparent that it wasn't real.

They prefer the people to be fooled. But apart from that, you have leeway to do favors and gratify your passions."

"Which is just what you seemed to be doing," King Cheer said. "You have nice taste in women. I'm not clear why there have been attempts on your life."

"I'm investigating the murder of King Deal."

The three stared at him. "That would do it," King Enterprise said after a moment.

"And that explains how you won over his widow," King Cheer added.

"Lady Aspect should have resented you, but it seems you converted her from the first."

"She's a good woman," Havoc said. "I need her."

"True. But you are the man who took her husband's place. A barbarian impostor. She was prepared to hate you, and instead she supports you. Completely. Our wives report that she has never spoken a word in your disfavor."

"In fact, you seem to have won over all of King Deal's people," King Diamond said. "And not merely because you kept them on. They really do like you."

"They are good people."

"But you asked us for advice," King Enterprise said. "We proffer it: Resign."

Havoc grimaced. "I can't do that. What other advice do you have?"

King Enterprise frowned. "King Deal was given the chance to resign.

He declined. He was impeached. He fought it and won. Because his death seemed accidental, there was no disposition of his staff. It was left for the successor king to dispose of. You surprised those people, and they are now your most loyal supporters. But the point is, you can't win. If you don't resign or get deposed, you will mysteriously die. It is better to go the easy way.

Then you and your woman can join us in retirement and watch holos." He glanced toward the wives with a small quirk of his mouth.

"You haven't answered my question," Havoc said evenly.

"I am arguing the case for common sense," Enterprise said. "If you are impeached and deposed, your friends and staff will suffer. If you die, they will be at the mercy of the successor king. He is unlikely to be as kind as you

proved to be."

Havoc just looked at him.

All three kings nodded once more, almost imperceptibly. They were not Piers Anthony 499

surprised by his attitude. "We would like to have it on record that we urged you to resign," Enterprise said.

"So you did. So I will report."

"With that accomplished, we shall join our wives. We trust you will take our advice to heart, and save yourself much grief." Diamond and Enterprise walked to the chairs.

King Cheer remained. He made a small beckoning motion with four fingers and sat in a chair facing Havoc. Havoc brought up a chair and sat facing him. The two men put their heads together.

Now it was feasible to read the man's mind. They may try to assassinate you openly, King Cheer thought. You have proved to be difficult to kill by covert means.

You must root out all possible traitors. Your ability to read minds will help; no king we

know of had that. But there's bound to be one traitor you miss; there always is. That is

your worst danger. Fight the impeachment openly; make a big scene of it, so that if you die,

everyone will know that it was assassination. That may discourage them; they don't like

being open. Much of their power is in their anonymity. Move rapidly, to keep them

guessing. And I think you must name the Glamors.

Havoc looked at him in surprise. "They are mythical," he said only in his mind.

I am not sure they are. I suspect them of being the true powers of this planet. You cannot directly oppose them, but if you associate them with you in the popular mind, they may let you go, as they much prefer to be unknown.

In effect, you will force them to prove themselves mythical by allowing you to live, at least for a while.

"What of King Deal's murder?"

Investigate it openly. Again, that may prevent the hidden powers from killing you,

lest the matter be publicized too widely. I think the odds are against you, but this is our best

advice, if you insist on tackling the establishment. And one more thing: check the Emergency Protocols of the Crown. They may seem dull and routine, but they have some

wrinkles you may find useful. Reclaim the power of your office, if you can.

Then King

Cheer stood. "But come," he said aloud. "We can't sit here idly forever. We must join the women."

He had given Havoc much to think about. They joined the women. The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the holograph and indulging in in-nocuous dialogue.

Later, Havoc and the Lady Aspect returned to the palace. They did not speak of their meeting with the three former kings, and did not share it mentally. Havoc had gotten the most competent advice available, and now he had to decide how to act on it.

500 Key to Havoc

Chief and Symbol, the last of the five missions, returned to Triumph, bringing their prize: the timer. Havoc was ready for his next move.

"Fetch them," he told Ennui, lifting his crown to give a mental list. "We depart in an hour." She did not question him; she knew he had reason for privacy as well as speed.

They took a large coach to the site of King Deal's death: Chief, Symbol, Throe, Ennui, Placebo, Bijou, Berm, Spanky, Aspect, Gale and Havoc. All the couples who had been emulating king and consort, or who could read minds. They brought their acquisitions. None of them knew exactly how the devices were to be used. Havoc kept that secret under his crown.

But as they traveled, he spoke to them. "I am engaging in dangerous maneuvers. Your lives may be threatened. I regret this, but see no better way."

"We are all with you, Sire," Symbol said.

"I am expected to resign as king. If I do, the rest of you will be free to find other situations without prejudice, as you were before I came. If I don't,

you may be under suspicion as being loyal to one who was not worthy of the office. It will be another day or two before things get difficult. I suggest that

any of you who have doubts take action before then; Ennui may be able to find safe alternate positions for you."

There was a silence. Berm looked around, then spoke. "I'm really not part of this group, Sire. You rescued me from the torture cult and reunited me with my sister, and assigned a wonderful woman to be my companion. I owe you my life, and will go only if you wish me to. But I wonder why it is that you did not include the Lady Ennui among those free to depart."

"I'm free," Ennui said. "But I won't go. I'm Havoc's oath friend. If he dies, I die. He is my life."

"I thought you were with Throe."

"The king is my life too," Throe said.

"None of us are leaving," Symbol said. "We are all advocates of the barbarian."

"Then I hope barbarism prevails," Berm said. "But I must say that this is not the way I thought the king was."

"My situation is yours," Placebo said. "I'm not quite sure how I became part of this party."

"Are you sorry?" Bijou asked him.

"I am captive of his women."

"We are all his women," Symbol said.

There it lapsed. Havoc was glad for their loyalty, but felt guilty for the Piers Anthony 501

possible cost of it. All of them were here because they had become his closest associates. "I think you deserve to know what I'm doing here," he said. "I am investigating the death of my predecessor, King Deal. I believe he was murdered, but I don't know how or by whom. I hope to discover both on this trip. This investigation has been private; now I want the world to know it. All of you have been helping me to get the equipment and advice I need to gain the answers. Some of you have been helping by getting dummy equipment, so that my anonymous enemy could not know exactly what I was doing. You have also helped by emulating me and Gale so that the enemy could not be sure exactly where we were. I think the fact that we succeeded means that you succeeded. The enemy even struck at Placebo and Bijou. If I can now fathom the mystery of King Deal's murder, I may expose the enemy and bring it to justice."

"Why do I suspect it will not be that easy?" Symbol said. The others laughed.

In due course they arrived at the site. It was a steep mountain slope between Chroma. "Show us," Havoc said to Throe.

Throe stepped forward. "King Deal liked challenges. This is one of the rougher paths between Chroma. It mounts that slope and crosses that open chasm. There is normally a bridge, but a storm took it out. King Deal wanted to see how rapidly he could traverse it. I checked it and it seemed safe, because I knew that he was sure of foot and well able to hurdle the crevasse. I recommended against it anyway, because unnecessary risks are foolish, but he would not be stopped. This was his way of relieving the stresses of his office.

He had survived a negative Crown Assessment and impeachment, and wanted to unwind."

"That's not how Havoc unwinds," Bijou said mischievously.

"On that occasion, my attentions were not sufficient," Symbol said. "If I could retrace that period, I would make sure he never got out of my bed."

"And I would have sent him back to it if he tried to leave," the Lady Aspect said. "Or taken him to mine."

Placebo looked confused. Bijou enlightened him: "The king normally has a mistress, with his wife's acquiescence. The Lady Aspect was King Deal's wife, and the Lady Symbol his mistress. Both loved him. The Lady Gale will be King Havoc's wife, if she can be, and I was his mistress for a time, and will

be again if I can be. We both love him."

"Oh. Of course," the Translucent Chroma man said uncomfortably.

"You know your future lies in your own Chroma, when your business with the king is done," Symbol told him. "You would not want to be forever 502 Key to Havoc

bandaged, as you and I are now."

"That's true." But it was evident that he would not soon be forgetting either Gale or Bijou. Havoc understood why, as well as any man could. He suspected that Placebo would not be returning to his Chroma.

"And Havoc also indulges in risky behavior," Gale said.

"The two men are similar, in such respects," Chief said. "They did not accept conventional limitations."

Throe led the way up the path. "Normally the crown would have protected King Deal, regardless. But when he fell, his flailing hand knocked it off, and so there was no barrier between him and the ground. He struck the rock below, and was dead. I failed to protect him."

Havoc stood on the brink of the chasm. The path was a ledge in the slope, and the chasm severed both slope and path. The cut was about five feet across, and widened below. There was a sheer drop of about fifty feet to jagged rocks. A fall into that could certainly be lethal.

Without warning he leaped across it. "Hey!" Throe and Ennui cried together.

"The footing is firm," Havoc said. "There should have been no trouble."

"He did not take off properly," Throe said. "He did not come close to clearing the gap. He dropped directly into it."

"He misstepped?"

"He must have."

Havoc leaped back, and inspected the path leading up to the chasm.

"This is firm. There are no loose stones, no slippery sections."

"There were none then, either," Throe said.

"Could he have done it deliberately?"

"King Deal was not suicidal," Throe said stoutly. Symbol, Chief, and Aspect nodded agreement. "Neither was he incompetent. He should not have misstepped."

"That is my impression," Havoc said. "This, too, is something you all should know: he was a changeling. I am too, and so are Gale and Symbol.

None of us are incompetent or suicidal. He was investigating the mystery of the changelings, and we suspect that this was the reason for his murder."

"Not his resistance to being urged to leave the office?" Symbol asked, though she knew the answer.

"His pursuit of the changelings may have been the reason for the impeachment. There's no evidence he was in trouble before he began that investigation."

"That's true," the Lady Aspect said. "My husband's tenure seemed se-Piers Anthony 503

cure. He had been seven years as king before he got curious about the changelings, and then suddenly everything soured."

"You say King Deal himself was a changeling," Chief said. "So he may have been curious about his own origin."

"He was," Symbol said. "He spoke to me about it. At that point I hadn't known he was one, and I didn't know that I am one until Havoc figured it out.

Deal liked to solve mysteries, and the mystery of his origin fascinated him.

The more difficult it was to learn anything, the more determined he was to fathom it. We didn't realize there was any connection to the impeachment, at the time."

"That was my conclusion," Aspect said. "After his death. It was the only thing that differed from the norm."

"And when Havoc went after the changelings, trouble came to him too,"

Symbol said.

"Could there be a connection between the changelings and the Glamors?" Havoc asked.

All of the others looked at him. "Sire," Chief said, "out of what planet did this notion come?"

"Call it a passing thought," Havoc said. He had no intention of getting the former kings in trouble. "We thought the changelings were mythical, and learned that they are not. We think the Glamors are mythical; could it be that they are not? Many of the qualities ascribed to the Glamors, of great personal appeal, high intelligence, physical health, and ability to handle power are

also true of the changelings. If you stripped away the phenomenal reputed magic of a Glamor, which may be vastly overstated if they exist at all, don't you have something very like a changeling?"

One by one, they nodded. "Oh, Havoc," Bijou said. "If you are right, you're in double danger now. It's bad luck even to speak of a--a Glamor."

"But you know, this is an intriguing notion," Symbol said. "If there is a connection between the two, and the Glamors wish to be secret while participating in our human society, they would wish the changelings to be secret too.

Maybe it is only changelings that become Glamors, so they are protecting their base from compromise or prejudice. So anyone who pursues the changelings is discouraged, and if he won't be discouraged, he is eliminated. That would account perfectly for King Deal--and now Havoc."

"It would indeed," Aspect agreed. She turned to Havoc. "Sire, maybe it's not too late. If you give up this chase right now, you may be able to live

and remain king. I--I would prefer that."

"So would I," Symbol said.

504 Key to Havoc

"And I," Throe said. "Sire, it is my job to protect your life. This may be the single key thing to facilitate that."

Havoc looked around. "How many of you prefer that I drop this investigation?"

Slowly each nodded again. Eight of them wanted him to let it go. Only Symbol and Gale remained.

He held Gale's gaze, requiring her to answer. Her decision came suddenly. "Expletive!" she said. "That anonymous enemy went after me too."

"Amen," Symbol agreed. "If you're about to back off because it's dangerous, Sire, you're not the man I think you are."

"The vote is eight to two," Havoc said.

"Seven to three," Aspect said. "I want you to survive, but the more I consider, the more it seems to me that you have already crossed the line, and will not be spared. That being the case, I'd rather see you fight."

"Yes!" Bijou said. "You promised me my fourth. Let it be the child of a hero, and not of one who knuckled under. Six to four."

Spanky came alert. "You're giving out fourths? Five to five."

"I'm not giving out fourths," Havoc protested. "Bijou risked her life for me."

"I would too!"

Gale caught Spanky's eye. "He'll do it, when the time comes. You have my promise."

The girl was thrilled. "Thank you, Lady."

Ennui looked distressed. "I can't let all these younger women support you while I do not. I will always be in your camp, and I'm not looking for any fourth. Four to six."

"Too damn many women in the party," Throe said. "I voted with my head. Now with my heart: do it, Sire."

"Do it, Sire," Chief agreed grimly.

Placebo spread his hands. "If I have a vote, I'm changing it."

"Unanimous," Berm said. "But I hope we're not voting you into oblivion, Sire."

"You aren't," Havoc said. "I was going to do it regardless."

"As if we didn't know that," Ennui said with a weary smile.

"But I renew my suggestion that you leave my company as soon as you can. You are all being threatened."

"It's too late for us, too," Symbol said. "We are all tainted by your association, Sire."

"This very dialogue has tainted us," Throe said. "We know too much."

Piers Anthony 505

"I'm sorry about that," Havoc said. "I do need your support. I will do my best to survive, and to protect you." He took a breath. "Now let's be efficient about this. I suspect that events are about to accelerate. Throe, do what you have to, to ensure that we can't be taken out without making a scene that will publicize our business to the whole planet."

"Understood." Throe lifted his hand in a signal. Immediately men appeared, advancing to form a rough semicircle behind the group. Havoc was sure that others were spreading out ahead of them, beyond the curve of the mountain. Throe generally kept the protective mechanisms out of sight, but they were formidable; there was nothing casual about his mission. King Deal would have been similarly protected, but the mechanism of his murder proved to be so subtle that there was no protection from it.

"Now the enemy may be watching," Havoc said. "So I still want to mask my real effort, so that any interference has less of an obvious target.

Placebo

and Bijou, invoke your air spell and stand by for further action. Act as if this

is a really important concern."

Placebo brought out the ball he had gotten from the Invisible Chroma.

Bijou took his hand. They made a show of doing something really important, and the others duly watched. Then they disappeared. They had been rendered invisible, clothing included.

"Gale, give Berm and Spanky your smoke bomb. Make it important.

Don't invoke it yet."

Gale took the yellow ball to the couple. They accepted it with great formality and paraded it around. They were being important too.

"Chief, Symbol, make your timer operative. Set it for the time of King Deal's death."

They brought out the device they had obtained from the White Chroma.

It looked like a fancy clock, but was more complicated. They set it on the path and made adjustments, peering at dials and indicators as they oriented on a prior time.

"Throe, Ennui, stand ready with your mind spell."

They brought it out. This was just a translucent ball that answered to mental commands. Ennui held it, as Throe was watching the deployment of the protective force.

"And we will see what we can do with this." Havoc brought out the brown ball he had obtained from the Brown Chroma. Gale took it.

"We have the time," Chief announced.

"Orient the locator on King Deal," Havoc said.

Gale tuned the brown ball to react only to the presence of the former 506 Key to Havoc

king. It was dull, indicating that Deal was not in the vicinity. She carried it to

the timer, bringing it into the field of the past. It flickered, then glowed.

"I don't understand this," the Lady Aspect said. "We already know exactly where my husband died. What is the point of this locator?"

"This planet is in constant motion," Havoc explained. "It whirls through space, in its orbits around Vivid and Void, and orbits Planet Mystery too. The surface also changes, as Charm rotates. So this spot on the surface where the murder occurred is not close to that spot in larger space. But the locator, attuned to King Deal, is now orienting on that true spot, and will enable our other devices to orient similarly."

The Lady Aspect stared at him. "You have truly done your homework!"

"He does," Gale said.

"Now advance the timer slowly forward," Havoc said.

As they did so, the locator faded. Deal was no longer there. So she moved the locator forward on the path, and it glowed again: Deal was moving in time and space, and so the two devices had to be constantly adjusted and coordinated.

They traced him to the brink of the chasm, and to arm's reach over it.

"Move back to the spot where he jumped," Havoc said.

They did so. When the brown ball was glowing steadily, Havoc had Ennui bring the translucent ball to that spot.

"Set off the smoke bomb," Havoc said to Berm. "And drop it into the chasm."

Berm did. The smoke surged out, forming a dense ball that roiled outward and upward as the bomb fell. It bid fair to fill the chasm with its dark substance. That would surely be a distraction to whatever enemy might be watching.

"Identify any other mental presence at this site and time," Havoc said to Ennui.

She concentrated. "There's only one: Throe."

"I was jumping with him," Throe said. "I cleared the chasm; he did not.

Had I realized--"

"Narrow it to Deal's head," Havoc said. "See if there is a foreign presence there."

After a moment she said "There's just a tiny trace, hardly enough to matter."

"Identify it."

She struggled. "Just one second, no more. It's not really a mind, just a--a dampening. A pushing of a switch, maybe. Then it's gone."

Piers Anthony 507

"What about a stun command?"

"It's not strong enough to stun a person, or even part of a person. It's just a little turnoff that at most would have made him pause. Harmless, really."

"Get the source of that push," Havoc said.

"I have copied it. But it's no one we know. It's a completely foreign trace."

"Now project that trace to my mind."

Ennui looked at him. "Havoc, if this thing somehow killed King Deal--"

"Suppose there is a switch in the mind of a changeling that can be changed for a moment by a very small push?"

"There could be. But--"

"Not lethal in itself. Just enough to make him jump not quite hard enough, and fall to his death. A seeming accident."

Both Ennui and Throe nodded, suddenly seeing it. "Yes, that could be,"

she said. "But to risk it on you--"

"I'm not jumping. Do it."

"Not on you, Sire," Throe protested. "Test it on me first."

Havoc shrugged. "Okay."

Ennui put the ball near Throe's head. She concentrated. Nothing happened. "No effect," Throe said.

"Now me," Havoc said.

Reluctantly, she lifted the ball, put it near his head, and gave it a silent command.

Havoc staggered, and would have fallen, but for Throe's strong hands on his shoulders. "Sire!" Throe cried.

Equilibrium returned. "I'm okay. But that was enough to set me back.

So now we know: it's a switch that exists only in a changeling, not a normal person."

"That's not certain, Sire," Symbol said. "There's a normal difference between any two people."

Havoc shrugged. "Test it on others."

They did. The signal made Symbol and Gale stagger, but had no effect on Chief or Ennui or Berm or Spanky. Havoc had won his point.

"Now we know how," Havoc said. "And when that mental trace is analyzed by the Translucent Chroma professionals, we'll know who. We already know why."

"No we don't, Sire," Symbol said. "We know they don't want this matter investigated, but not why they don't."

508 Key to Havoc

Havoc nodded. "True. But maybe when we catch up to them, we'll learn that."

"I doubt we'll discover who," Chief said. "Assassins are normally apt at covering their tracks. But this does show that the originators of the changelings must be behind this, because only they would know of that special switch.

They can control their own."

"So then why didn't they do it to Havoc already," Symbol asked. "Instead of going after him with crude air or fire bombs?"

"That would be suspicious," Chief said. "They can't afford to kill two kings the same way."

"Except perhaps in an emergency," Gale said.

"It wouldn't be effective anyway," Throe said. "It would have to catch him at a key moment in a key situation. It's a very specialized application."

"All the same, let's get Havoc to the Translucent Chroma and have them nullify that switch," Symbol said. "In fact, that would be a good idea for Gale

and me too."

"Agreed, when I get time," Havoc said. "But first I have a date with the Crown Assessment. I don't want to be judged in absence."

They returned to their coach. "Where are Placebo and Bijou?" Ennui asked.

"Still invisible," Placebo's voice came.

"Well, turn it off and get in here."

"How?"

Symbol smiled; this was her department. "I'm tempted to let them grow out of it. But a spell of invisibility isn't the same as natural invisibility.

Just

think cancellation."

Suddenly Placebo and Bijou reappeared. "That was fun," Bijou said.

"We were just as solid as ever, but couldn't even see each other. So we had to keep holding hands, or whatever." She looked at Symbol. "How do you folk get along, in the Invisible Chroma?"

"We talk to each other," Symbol said. "Didn't you see how it was in my Chroma when you got the spell?"

"We got only to the fringe, so the effect wasn't complete. We could see things."

"You saw the tourist setup. The interior, including the volcano, is completely masked."

"But how do you cook or make beds, or anything, when everything is invisible?" Spanky asked. "I mean, if I were invisible, maybe I'd sit on someone's lap and he would know I was there, but at other times I should Piers Anthony 509

think it would be inconvenient."

"We use illusion," Symbol explained. "We outline everything we need to see with a fringe of illusion, and have no trouble." She removed one of her gloves, revealing an empty sleeve. Then a shimmering hand appeared, as she invoked illusion to outline it. "We can make ourselves appear pretty much as we wish to. But of course our reality manifests by touch when we sit in a lap."

"It certainly does," Chief agreed. The others laughed.

"So you could have shown me your body, when you first stripped," Havoc said.

"It was more fun to play Touch," Symbol said smugly.

They reached Triumph. "Relax," Havoc said. "But stay close. Things will be heating up." They were perhaps not aware just how much things would heat. He hoped his enemies were similarly ignorant.

They dispersed to their several residences. Ennui went to her office.

Soon she emerged. "Havoc, it's here," she said. "The Crown Assessment."

"What does it say?"

"It's devastating. They make you look like a lascivious idiot."

"Give it here." Then he remembered something that had slipped his mind. "I need some fast and quiet research on the Emergency Protocols."

"I will see to it."

Havoc took the document and retired with Gale to review it. "Whereas: Havoc of Trifle, a barbarian rendered king, brought his ignorant ways to the crown, and has disgraced it," he read. "He spent more time away from his duties than with them, preferring to seduce the bath girl and wander alone with her." He smiled. "They certainly have my number."

"You were getting the locator so you could solve King Deal's murder,"

Gale said. "You had to hide so the enemy wouldn't know what you were up to."

"It seems they aren't interested in that."

Havoc read some more. "He sent his fiancée out alone on dangerous missions, without regard whether she lived or died."

"That's not true!" Gale protested. "You did your best to conceal my identity and mission, both times. It wasn't your fault the enemy was able to track me."

Havoc began skimming the list of particulars. "He pissed with women.

He passed the King's Crown around to other men to wear. He left an impostor as king while he traveled irresponsibly as a minstrel, pointlessly endanger-ing himself. He physically dueled with the Duke of Whitecrest, and with a golem warrior. Deliberately infected himself and others with a mental disease.

510 Key to Havoc

Bungled an invasion of a torture complex. Had sex with a succubus, and let her take his soul. Paired off his male and female associates as if they were so

many interchangeable bricks." He looked up again. "This is a remarkably complete detailing of my failings."

"A remarkably biased interpretation of your activities," she corrected him.

"Still, perhaps persuasive to folk who weren't there." Havoc was bemused rather than angry.

They read the rest of it together. "They don't give you any credit at all,"

she said. "Every misstep, every crudity is detailed. Meanwhile there's nothing about the way you handled the several early crises."

"This is a hatchet document," he agreed. "Manufactured by people who want me out. They're trying to embarrass me into resigning."

"Well, you can explain what you were doing. This stuff is garbage, and any fair minded person will see that."

"I'm not sure I want to explain. That would be fighting on their turf, and as I have been warned, even if I win, I'll get assassinated."

"Then what are you going to do, Havoc?"

Havoc smiled. "I'm going to give them a taste of combat, barbarian style. I'll need your help."

"Of course."

"Not so fast, Gale. This will be dangerous. I mean to trigger an assassination attempt, and that may be more dangerous to you than to me."

"I love you, Havoc. If I can't marry you, maybe I can give my life for you."

He shook his head. "You know I can find sex anywhere, and I enjoy all of it. But I'll never find another love like you. I don't want to risk you."

"I know that, Havoc. I feel the same. Tell me what you need from me."

He knew she meant it. "It's like a glorified Tickle & Peek, in full public.

You may not care to--"

"Tell me."

He removed his crown for just a moment and put his head near hers, focusing his thoughts. She nodded. "That will set them back," she agreed.

"In more than one sense. There will be chaos."

"There will be my namesake. Havoc. That's the idea."

"Havoc," she agreed, smiling. "Yes, I will do it. For you." She was making it seem like a small favor, but it was a big favor, and a dangerous one.

He wasn't done yet. "There's something else. How did they come by the details itemized on this document? Only a close associate would know them."

Piers Anthony 511

"Havoc, none of our close associates would betray you. None have. We know each other's minds, literally. We have not contributed to this rag."

"Not consciously, perhaps."

"Do you want to take off that crown again and let me know what's on your sinister mind?"

"I think I had better keep it on. And talk with Symbol."

"Symbol," she said thoughtfully. "She's no traitor."

"That is for you to ascertain. When I first interviewed her, my dragon seed buzzed. I took it to be a warning of another nature. Now I'm not sure.

I will keep my crown on; you will read her mind."

"Her mind shield is too good. She's a changeling, Havoc; she's very good at whatever she tries."

"She will let her shield down. Bring her here."

Mystified, Gale checked with Ennui, who quickly summoned the Invisible Chroma woman.

"What is it, Sire?" Symbol inquired as she joined them. As always, there was a special quality to her presence, which he now recognized as the changeling aura. Others reacted to it automatically, and it accounted for much of his

own impact on people. But he was not immune to it himself; she intrigued him enormously.

"Glance at this Crown Assessment." He gave her the paper.

She skimmed though it. "This is ridiculous. `He dallied with the Invisible Chroma Representative, who removed all her clothing and let him fondle her.' It wasn't that way. We played a game of questions and penalties as an introductory ploy. You did touch me, but only to verify my form."

She was minimizing it. Her form was seductive, and she had instilled desire in him that had never faded. But she was correct that it had not been an overtly sexual session. "Yet there are details there that only you and I could know. I did not reveal them, so you must have."

"I told no one, Sire!"

His dragon seed buzzed. "You did tell someone."

"I did not!"

"Symbol, I do not like being lied to."

Her veil looked him in the eye. "I never lied to you, Sire, and am not doing so now."

This time, surprisingly, the seed did not buzz. How could that be?

"She doesn't know she told anyone," Gale said.

"I did not tell anyone." But the seed buzzed.

"Symbol, there is a problem here, and we must solve it. Lower your 512 Key to Havoc

mind shield and let Gale read your mind."

"You are suggesting that I am a traitor, Sire. I am not."

"I am suggesting that I am about to be impeached, based on information you have provided. If you did not tell anyone, and had no contact with hostile mind readers, something has betrayed you. I need to know what it is."

She gazed at him. "Sire, I do not want to do this. Is there no other way I can satisfy you?"

"I don't think there is."

"Havoc, that's not true," Gale said. He realized that her seed had buzzed as he spoke. His own did not buzz when he lied or was in error; he had personal immunity.

"Maybe there is a way. But why don't you want to let your mind be read?

Gale is not your enemy."

"Not yet."

"What do you mean?" Gale asked, surprised.

Symbol looked pained beneath her veil. "Oh, damn it, it's going to come out anyway. Take a look."

There was a pause.

"That's enough," Gale said, evidently taken aback. "Havoc, she's no traitor to you."

"Then what's so secret in her mind?"

Gale hesitated. "Tell him," Symbol said, resigned. "I don't even want to hide it any more."

Gale nodded. "She loves you, Havoc. Really loves you, with a depth and breadth I wouldn't have believed, considering her experience with men. Mind and heart and groin. You are her Vivid and her Void. She has notions I wouldn't have thought of."

This set him back. "But she's in grief for King Deal."

"Yes, and that's real. But he is dead, and you are alive, and it really is true

about changelings yearning to each other. And there's something special about you beyond that; I'm in a position to know."

"You love him the same way, Gale," Symbol said. "That's why you understand."

"I do," Gale agreed.

But Havoc didn't. "What of Chief?"

"A liaison of convenience. You're the one I want. And you have your own fiancée and your own mistress and other girls like Spanky lining up in droves. You don't need me, and I can't have you, and I wouldn't be good for you anyway, and the king's mistress does not just blithely move on to the next Piers Anthony 513

king, so it's impossible, so I would rather not have it known."

Havoc felt a sudden, powerful urge toward her. She had always appealed to him, and now with her declaration she appealed much more. He loved Gale and cared for Bijou, but Symbol was a woman. "Throe is right," he said.

"This woman is dangerous."

"Havoc," Gale said, understanding too well. "You could no more marry her than you can marry me. She's a changeling."

"But I'm a changeling of a different generation," Symbol said. "A different batch, I think. You and Havoc have a family affinity, a similarity, that

makes you close, but I'm probably far enough removed. I think I could marry him, and safely bear his children--and I wouldn't. Because my experience and notions would corrupt him in ways that your association would not. But my very presence could destabilize him, because he feels the same tidal pull.

We are like Charm and Counter-Charm, squeezing each other, inciting volcanoes. You know it, Gale. That's why you'll be my enemy, and justified in it, if

I don't go away in a hurry. And I can't stand the thought of leaving him."

Her veil was turning wet.

Gale nodded. "You could take him from me. I always knew that. That's why I supported Bijou as his mistress."

"That's why I supported Bijou as his mistress," Symbol said. "I don't want to do to him what I will do to him if I get the chance. Because I love him, I don't want to let my love damage him."

Gale faced Havoc. "She's right. You are I are social and sexual innocents compared to her. Even Swale is impressed. Take my word."

"I resemble King Deal, in the changeling aspects," Havoc said. "You pick up on that, Symbol. But I may not live long enough for this to be a problem. So you should stay around, at least until this crisis is over, then see

what remains to be sorted out. But that is not my immediate problem. Now we need to know how you gave away information. Did you mention our first dialogue to anyone?"

"No. Only--" She froze. "Oh, great planets and little gods! That must be it!"

"What must be it?"

"I keep a record, for the ages. It's done for all the kings, so that the personal aspects of their tenures will not be lost. I just write spot events in

the book, and next day the page is blank. It's magic, of course. I know that the words have gone to the archives, and will never be read by any ordinary person, so privacy is maintained. I did the same for King Deal."

This was breakthrough news. "Did you record his itinerary for the day 514 Key to Havoc

he died?"

"Yes, of course. He always told me what he had in mind. I'm a good listener, especially when I'm in love. He was taking a couple hours to relax, and he

let me know the night before, after we made love. I duly recorded it--" She broke

off, appalled. "I betrayed him to the enemy! I spelled out exactly where he was

going, so they could set up to kill him."

"And you have recorded similar details about me," Havoc said. "So they knew where I would be, and also where Gale would be, and what her mission was."

Slowly, Symbol nodded. "I am your traitor. I have to be. I never thought--

but suddenly it's obvious. I should have realized." She shook her head. "Well, at least that solves the problem of my future. You will have to find out all I know, then execute me for treason."

"I don't think so," Havoc said.

"Oh, I won't give you any further trouble. And I won't make any more entries in that record. The Invisible Chroma will replace me as their representative, and it will be done. It's the least I can do." Tears were flowing down her face; it was obvious because her veil was sodden. She removed it, leaving her face invisible, and wrung it out so that it dripped invisibly.

Then

she put it back on.

"No," Havoc said firmly. "You will continue as you are, and keep making your entries. But now you will be working for me instead of the enemy.

We will trace the route of the pages as they travel from your book, and get a line on that aspect of the enemy. There will be no indication that you are out of favor with the king."

"I will do whatever you wish. But it won't work long." There was a catch in her voice. She had always been well controlled, but she had lost it.

"The enemy will catch on quickly if the information is not accurate. And you won't want me close by anyway, considering my passion for you."

That was something Havoc wasn't yet ready to address. If he eased up at all on his own control, he would sweep her into his arms for explosive sex, with Gale watching. The worst of it was that Gale would understand. "For now there will be no change in anything." He glanced at Gale. "I think you don't want her dead."

"If you die, Havoc," Gale said grimly, "there will be no further issue between Symbol and me. If you don't--maybe you would be better off siring her children, if you can't sire mine." Her own face was wet.

Havoc did not care to address this subject either, at this time. He faced Symbol again. "Tonight write in your book that I questioned you among Piers Anthony 515

others, and have no idea how my enemy knows so much about me. And that I will not resign. I will fight this impeachment, and rip out the corruption we

have found in the bureaucracy. I mean to name names in public, when I speak in my defense, after I tell my story."

"Sire, if you name names, they will assassinate you where you stand.

These things have to be done quietly, so that the corrupt people don't realize they have been discovered. When they know they have nothing to lose, they will try to take you with them."

Exactly. "So you tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen. I'm a wounded barbarian, and in my naïveté I think that if I only put it all out before the public, I will prevail and save my position."

Her damp veil stretched with the unseen rounding of her eyes. "I am to write all that?"

"Yes. It is true."

"Havoc, you're crazy."

"But do not write that now I know they know my plans."

"I will not," she agreed.

"Have you written of your passion?" Gale asked.

"No, and not my passion for King Deal either, though that was hardly secret. I write only about the king."

"Continue that." Havoc turned away. "I think we are done here."

"Of course, Sire." Symbol walked away, leaving him with Gale. He felt her departure much as he felt her presence; there was a place in his fancy that

attuned regardless.

"Do you think this is wise?" Gale asked.

"She is no more threat to you now than she was before."

"I mean to have her write your real plans, as she knows them. I think she's right about assassination. If they are forewarned, they'll be prepared."

"Yes, I rather think they will be. But with your help, I hope to prevail.

You know how."

"I know. But she's right: you're crazy."

"I'm barbarian. There's a distinction."

"I hope so." She kissed him. "Now will you spend the night with me, or would you prefer Symbol?"

"What, and spoil her notes? I had better stick with the familiar, dull as it may be."

"Dull as it may be," she agreed with a smile. But of course it was not dull at all. Possibly she had learned something from Symbol's notions as well as from the succubus.

516 Key to Havoc

He woke in the night and discovered a paper Ennui had left beside his bed. The report on the mental trace that had killed King Deal came back promptly: it matched no known person. So that lead too had come to little.

All that work, with so many people scattered across so many Chroma, for so tiny a benefit! He had really hoped for more. His enemy was very good at covering a trail. But this contest between them was not yet over.

Next morning Havoc announced his intention to remain as king. The word was duly broadcast to all parts of the kingdom. That afternoon the impeachment court was convened. This consisted of twelve anonymous citizens whose decision would be binding. The proceedings were opened to the wider audience of the City Triumph, as had been the case when Havoc gave his first speech as king.

The Crown Assessment document was read aloud. The consternation of the masses was evident; they had believed in Havoc. Then Havoc was given his chance to speak. He was expected to resign, in which case his name would go down in the records as dishonored, but he would not be executed for treason. He had missed his chance for resignation with honor. But if he elected to fight it, as King Deal had, and lost, he would be executed. If he won, he would live for a time, but soon die mysteriously, as King Deal had. It was a fixed procedure; there was no easy way out, at this point.

But Havoc did not intend to play by their rules. He intended to impose his own rules, and thereby overthrow the existing order--or die in the attempt. He would win or lose in barbarian style. Only Gale and Ennui and Throe knew his strategy; the others were ignorant because there had to be no chance that their minds could be read and give it away.

The assemblage saw Havoc stride out onto the stage, garbed in blue traveling clothing. Only his crown showed him to be the king. Gale walked with him, also in traveling clothing; hers was silver. These were unusual costumes; normally only Chroma people wore monochrome. Ennui stood at the door to the private chamber from which they had come, garbed as the royal clerk she was. His other close associates, such as Chief, the Lady Aspect, and Bijou, were in the front row of the privileged audience, with the other notables of the realm. It was apparent that these ladies had been crying; they did not try to conceal it. Behind them the larger areas opened out below: tier upon tier of citizens of the city, gazing upward at the stage. To one side of the stage stood the ten Chroma Representatives, Symbol among them. To the other side was the Impeachment Court. Behind the stage was Throe, with a contingent of armed bodyguards: Havoc was still king, and would be protected until deposed.

Piers Anthony 517

"First I will tell you a story," he said boldly.

A member of the court interrupted. "King Havoc, this is not the occasion for frivolity." He was evidently the foreman.

Havoc barely glanced at him. "The content of my address is to be determined by this court?"

There were some small smirks in the audience, but none in the court.

"No. But you would do best to make your case expeditiously."

"I will do best to make my case in any manner I choose, you moron."

This time there were some larger smirks; the popular audience was obviously partial to the barbarian, despite the bill of particulars, and they loved seeing

pompous officials set back. "I choose to begin with a story about a man, a woman, a child, and a Glamor."

There was an intake of breath throughout the huge chamber. Everyone knew that it was bad form to mention the word Glamor, if not actually dangerous. At the same time, attention focused more closely. What was this unpredictable barbarian king up to?

"The title of my tale is `Glamor'" Havoc said, making sure that no one had mistaken the word. Gale faded back to join the company of the bodyguards.

Havoc took a moment to focus. When he spoke again, it would be as narrator and actor in a play. In his mind this was the only reality, and the stage

and audience was anonymous background. It was as if one of Symbol's illusion holographs were forming the scene. He hoped the audience would picture it as he did, despite the lack of magic.

Havoc removed his crown and set it on the floor at the side of the stage, by this token indicating that during this narration he was not to be thought of

as the king. In the process, he was demonstrating the very carelessness with the crown the Crown Assessment bill of particulars had claimed. But it was necessary for the tale he would tell. He was merely a man in blue, part of the story he was presenting. He walked across the stage, and back, as if hiking somewhere. Then he stopped in front of the front row audience, before Chief. He began his narration:

A

powerful, handsome young man strode rapidly toward the village. He was blue, from his skin to his hair, eyes, and clothing.

Havoc signaled Chief, who stood without otherwise moving or speaking. He was to be used as a prop, in a manner familiar to village audiences, 518 Key to Havoc

and extremely popular, for it allowed ordinary folk to participate in the story.

The narrator, Havoc, would speak all parts.

The village elder came forth to meet him. "What is your business here, Blue?"

"I am on a private mission. I wish to trade for supplies and directions, as I am unfamiliar with this region." He produced a small blue gem. "This will facilitate the taming of animals, when you invoke it in the name of the Blue Chroma. It is all I have to offer."

"The path ahead is challenging," the elder said, not taking the gem. "There are dangerous predators, not suitable for taming, and the weather is treacherous, for this is the Void season. We recommend that you wait for a better time."

"I appreciate that," Blue said. "But I must make a rendezvous at noon two days hence, and am unable to wait. Please accept my Blue Chroma stone, and provide me what I need, in your best judgment."

"Perhaps, in that case, we can arrange a service in lieu of the stone, which you will surely need on your journey. We have another traveler who is in need of support and protection."

Blue shrugged. "I am amenable, provided he does not slow me to the point of missing my rendezvous."

Gale quietly walked forward, coming to stand opposite Havoc at the front of the stage. Though her garb was for travel, it fitted very well, and she

was remarkably comely.

A young woman appeared. She was silver from her skin to her hair, eyes, and clothing, and she was lovely almost beyond belief. "I am she," she said.

"I have a similar appointment, and am concerned about journeying alone. If you will facilitate my progress, I will forage and clean and cook for you on the

way."

Blue was taken aback. "With all due respect, Silver, I don't think you should undertake such a trip. I am not at all sure--"

"If you are concerned that I will slow you, I assure you that I will keep the pace. I walk well, and am rested; I have lost a day because these kind villagers were unwilling to let me proceed alone. I must arrive at my destination on time." She slapped her thigh, showing that she was dressed for it too, with well-fitting silver hiking trousers, and competent boots.

"This was not my objection," Blue said, though actually it had been among his concerns. "The need to sleep on the trail two nights, when it may be cold--this could be awkward."

She smiled a smile that seemed to turn the landscape silver. "I will give Piers Anthony 519

you my word not to seek to molest you, regardless of the necessary circumstance, if you will give me yours similarly."

"Well, of course I give it," Blue said, embarrassed, for the fact was that though she was of a different Chroma, it was impossible to look at her without fancying her embrace. "Still--"

"Then it is decided," Silver said.

"But you don't know me! I could be a brigand whose word is no good."

She lifted her hand. "Touch my stone." She held a Silver Chroma gem, much like his blue one.

Blue touched it. There was an electric tingle. He knew the stone had verified his integrity. "Then it must be all right," he said.

"Let me touch your stone."

He sifted his blue gem, and she touched it with a silver finger. It did not react, which meant that she was legitimate: it accepted her as tame.

The elder gestured to his house. "Your supplies are awaiting you."

"Thank you, Elder." Blue went to the house, and so did Silver. They packed their knapsacks, and were ready to go. Among other things, each had a shelter half, because a full shelter was cumbersome to carry.

Havoc and Gale turned their backs on the audience, and Chief, dismissed from the story, sat down.

Silver was correct: she had a good long stride, and maintained it well; she did not slow him at all. The weather was cold but good; Void was not flaring at the moment. The path was clear, and they made good progress.

The land on one side was faint red, becoming deep red in the distance.

On the other side it was black. They were traveling between Chroma, as was normal. Within their own Chroma they could have used magic, but in foreign Chroma they had no such power, so it was best to stay clear of all magic.

That way they would not be subject to much hostile foreign enchantment.

This was also the reason that the trail wound deviously between Chroma, for all travelers preferred to avoid such mischief.

"I do not wish to pry," Silver said as they walked. "But I confess to a woman's curiosity. Do you care to tell me of your mission?"

"I have no objection," Blue said, for in truth he liked the prospect of engaging this beautiful woman in dialogue. "But I can't be very helpful, because I don't know it."

She seemed not completely surprised. "How can you be on a mission you don't know?"

"I must report to a particular place at a particular time. There and then it seems I will learn my mission."

520 Key to Havoc

She nodded, as if this was familiar. "But how can you be sure the mission is compatible?"

Blue shrugged. "I can't be sure. But I was made an offer I could not refuse."

"Was it by any chance the acquisition of a wonderful body?"

He turned his head to stare at her, amazed. "How did you know?"

To his surprise, she flushed; her fair silver face turned a darker shade of silver. "Because that was the offer that was made to me."

"How could you wish for anything other than what you have now? You are the most beautiful woman I have seen."

"This is the proffered body. In my natural state I am ugly, and I limp. If I achieve success in my mission, I will get to keep this lovely form. If you had

seen me before, you would know why I could not refuse."

"I limp too," Blue said. "A childhood injury with a magical component, so that I never fully healed. I can walk, but only with discomfort, and I would

not attempt to run fast or far."

"Yes, I am the same. I was ridiculed as a child for my infirmity, and of course no man would marry me. I am a virgin not by choice." She flushed again, less intensely.

"And no woman would marry me," he agreed. He felt his own face turning a darker blue, but he felt obliged to match her candor. "One older woman gave me one experience, because she said it would not be kind to let a succubus get me, but that was all. I did well enough in school, learning to use

my mind rather than my body to solve problems. But I face bleak prospects."

"I understand perfectly." She took his hand. "It seems that someone knew how to get volunteers. How dangerous do you suppose this mission is?"

"I have not allowed myself to think about that overmuch," Blue said. "I will get to keep this excellent body if I succeed, so I will do my utmost to prevail."

"Yes." She squeezed his fingers. "Let's get to know each other, as we travel, now that we know that our only true reality is in our minds."

Blue was glad to agree. The odd thing was that he found her more interesting, now that he knew she wasn't physically genuine, than he had before. They talked, comparing notes about the unhappiness of childhood and the delights of the intellect, and he found her mind as ready as his own. For one of the few times in his life, he was talking on an equal basis with a member of the opposite gender, and enjoying it. She was neither slighting nor tolerating him; she related. That was worth more than he had ever realized Piers Anthony 521

was possible.

The court foreman stood. "How long is this irrelevance to be? We don't have all day."

Gale froze in place, putting her role on temporary hold, and Havoc gazed out over the popular audience. He made a questioning gesture.

The audience came through. "We have as long as King Havoc needs,"

one member called.

"So sit down, moron," another said.

There was general laughter as the foreman sat, disgruntled. The court had made a mistake, allowing a sometime minstrel to play to a large audience.

Even some of the Chroma representatives were trying to mask smiles.

Gale returned to animation, and Havoc resumed the narrative.

The path became rougher, traversing terrain that became a series of ridges like a monstrous washboard. But Silver climbed the steep sides as readily as he did, delighting in her strong healthy body just as much as he did

in his. "It's so much fun to be physically competent," she panted as they crested one ridge and began the descent. "I revel in it." She ran down ahead of him, and he couldn't help noticing the play of her fine legs and posterior.

This might not be her natural body, but it compelled attention regardless.

On the next descent, he ran ahead of her, avoiding untoward thoughts.

But then as he waited at the foot of the ridge, she came running down, and her bosom in her silver blouse bounced just as provocatively.

So he walked beside her, keeping his eyes forward--and a wind came up, blowing her voluminous yet sleek silver hair across to tickle his arm. She could intrigue his fancy from any angle.

As the day waned, they found themselves walking toward the brother-planet of Mystery, its many colors sharply defined as it hung low in the sky.

Suddenly there was a puff of red. "Oh, look!" Silver cried. "A Red Chroma volcano is erupting."

So it was; they could see the blob of color expand. That had to be a massive effort, enlarging the territory of Red. "A lot of magic there," Blue said.

"Magic," she agreed. "Even when we're out of the Chroma, we're governed by it. Look at our colors." She took his hand again, showing her silver against his blue. "We can't escape it."

"We can't escape it," he echoed. "Even if we wanted to."

"We might want to escape it?"

"Well, you and I have not benefited much by it. Certainly I can do routine animal magic in the Blue Chroma, as I'm sure you can do electric 522 Key to Havoc

magic in the Silver Chroma. But since everyone else is just as good at it, that's

not remarkable. And when we leave our Chroma, we have very little magic."

"True." She walked in silence for a while, then spoke again. "Except the Glamors, perhaps."

"The Glamors?"

"You know. The super magicians who can do anything."

"Of course I know that. But what does a Glamor have to do with us?"

The foreman was on his feet again. "You go too far. Do not discuss that matter in public."

Havoc looked at the audience, which was plainly interested in the story.

"Tell us!" someone called. "We want to hear."

The foreman, cautioned by another member of the court, sat down again, though it was clear that none of the members were comfortable with this aspect of the tale. Havoc was addressing a forbidden subject, for all that it was mythical.

"I understand that they carry their magic beyond their Chroma. That they're like walking Chroma crystals, always magically potent. So they can go anywhere without concern."

"Oh. Yes, I suppose so. Too bad we aren't Glamors." He meant it as a joke, but it didn't work well.

"Well, they say that a Glamor can be anyone, or maybe anyone can be a Glamor. It happens entirely randomly. So it's possible that one of us-" She broke off. "But of course that's ludicrous. There's only one Glamor at a time in any one Chroma, and sometimes none."

"They erupt randomly, and glow for an uncertain time," he agreed. "Five to twenty years, I think, is the normal range. Then they fade. But in that time--"

"In that time, what a phenomenal illumination! They can do anything.

They're the true rulers of their Chroma; their word is law, really by definition."

"Yet they seldom bother with politics. So they don't seem to make much difference."

"They must have something better to do," she said. "I'd give anything to know what they spend their time at."

"What, you'd give even that nice body?"

She was silent, and he regretted his question. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be unkind. I'm in the same situation myself, you know."

"It's not that. It just made me think: if you and I could not be healed by magic, how is it we could borrow these nice bodies? I mean, this is my body, Piers Anthony 523

I can feel it, but it's healed and enhanced. Could a Glamor have done it?"

That set him back. "You're right. Glamor magic might have done it, and I think not much else could have. But why would Glamor Blue bother, or Glamor Silver? We're just ordinary indifferent people, of no special account."

"I don't know. The village elder asked me if I would go on a special mission, and I demurred, being physically incompetent, and then he said the reward for success would be a perfect body. I thought he meant after I finished the mission, maybe I would have my leg healed, and I said I'd think about it, but when I woke next morning, here it was. A whole body beyond my fondest dreams. What could I do? Give it back? I found myself committed. So I set out for the address he gave me. You know the rest."

"It's pretty much my story too." He glanced across the red side of the landscape. "I hear that there's no Glamor Red now. So I suppose they couldn't get a volunteer from the Red Chroma, and had to go to others."

"But there's a Black Glamor," she said, looking across the black landscape. "Do you suppose we'll meet a black Chroma volunteer?"

"Maybe. I wish I knew what mission could be so important that it has to be done this way."

"I suspect we'll find out."

He laughed, ruefully agreeing. The prospect made him nervous.

Havoc made a signal as of time passing. The various listeners relaxed slightly, now that the discussion of Glamors had abated. Havoc had it seemed made a point: it was possible to speak openly of them without immediately summoning them. He hoped in due course to make more of a point: that they did not exist at all. They were merely folklore, dreamed up by those who longed for some chance to achieve ultimate grace and power without earning it. That would eliminate them as his enemy, and ensure that when he dealt with the political corruption, there would be nothing else to fear.

Evening came. Silver foraged for edible fruits and leaves and made a salad to go with their packed staples, and Blue gathered wood and made a fire by non-magical means. It was a good meal and and good fire, considering their handicaps of lack of Chroma magic, and they complimented each other on each.

"Do you know," Blue said, "I've never camped out with a woman before, let alone one of another Chroma."

"It is a novelty for me too," Silver said. "Now the chill of night is coming, for this is the winter season. Remember, we agreed no--"

"Of course. We'll have to share shelter, but I will lie facing away from you."

524 Key to Havoc

"Thank you. It's not that I find you unappealing, but there is no future in our relationship. We are of different Chroma."

"Agreed." Though he would gladly have settled for a temporary relationship, as she put it. He had never before been so fascinated by the color silver.

They unpacked their shelter halves and buttoned them together, then Blue used a rock to pound the pegs into the ground. He found repeller sticks and put a circle of them around the little tent, so that no animal would come upon them in the night. Then he crawled into the shelter, facing outward, clothed. Silver crawled in after him, also clothed, and nestled close under the

blanket, her knees against the backs of his knees, her arm looping over his, so

that they were as close together as was feasible. In this manner they preserved body heat. That, and the tent, and the lingering warmth of the dying fire, made sleep comfortable despite the intensifying chill. But Blue was highly

conscious of her silver hair falling across his neck, and the mounds of her breasts at his back, and her firm thighs against his. He was glad that there was

no mind reading, here between Chroma, for his imagination was refusing to be decently restrained.

There was a knowing murmur in the audience. The people saw Havoc lying on the floor, as he narrated the tale, with lovely Gale clasping him spoonwise, her hair disposed exactly as described. Any of the men would have traded places with him.

He woke before she did, and crawled out to rebuild the fire. Silver stretched in her sleep, taking up the extra space, unconsciously appreciating the renewed warmth of the blaze. Even disheveled, she was almost unbearably lovely.

Blue foraged for more firewood, so that the fire pushed back the cold and made the scene pleasant for the dawn. Silver woke, stretched, then climbed out and squatted before the fire, warming her hands. "That nearby stream is too cold for washing," she said. After a moment she brought out a cloth, dampened it in the stream, and removed her blouse. Blue turned politely away, not gazing at her.

Once more the court foreman protested. "This is indecent exposure.

We can't tolerate such a mockery of due process."

But the larger audience was avid, for Gale's bare breasts were marvels to behold. "Shut up, moron!" an anonymous voice shouted.

"I will close these proceedings to public view," the foreman said angrily.

Chief stood. "On what authority? This is the king's public address."

The foreman stood defiantly. Then from the audience swelled a chorus: Piers Anthony 525

"Moron! Moron! Moron! Moron!" Women were joining in. After a moment he sat again, defeated. The tale resumed.

"You agreed not to molest me," Silver reminded Blue.

"Yes. I am trying to avoid doing so visually."

"I understand, but I think we need not be that restrictive. So you may look, if you wish. I have a good body, for now, and someone might as well see it."

"Are you teasing me?"

"I suppose I am. I never had the chance before. With anyone. So are you going to look?"

Blue didn't argue further. He turned back, and watched her wash. He tried to imagine a more enticing sight, and failed. Even when he closed his eyes, there were after images of perfect silver globes.

Once she completed her top, she donned a new silver blouse, rinsed her cloth, and bared her bottom. He had never seen a woman nude before, even in stages, and was completely fascinated by her silver perfection. If there was

a heaven, it was surely populated by creatures like her.

There was a murmur of agreement from the audience. Gale's lower portion was in no way inferior to her upper portion, though neither was silver. Even the members of the court were paying close attention.

She completed her toilet, and squeezed back into her trousers. "Did you enjoy the view?"

"I could watch it forever."

She smiled. "I'm not being coy. It's hard to believe that I could ever intrigue a man, though I know this body ought to. So I need reassurance.

You really do like it?"

"I really do." It was of course an understatement, but his vocabulary was not up to an overstatement.

"Good. Now it's your turn to wash."

Oops. "But it's different for a man," he protested.

There was another wave of appreciation from the audience, especially the men. The people well understood why the blue man did not want to expose his state of arousal to the silver woman. There was however a partial chant among the women: "Take it off! Take it off!"

Silver considered. "If I were in my normal body, it wouldn't bother you at all."

"Probably true," Blue agreed ruefully. "Not as much, anyway."

"Very well. I'll wash your top half." She approached him and removed his shirt and used another wet cloth to go over his face, arms, and chest. The 526 Key to Havoc

touch of her gentle hands was its own kind of magic, especially when she reached around him to do his back. "They did give you a nice body," she said, running the cloth over a muscle in a caressing manner.

This time it was the women who reacted more, appreciating the tacit embrace. But the men were by no means lacking interest as Gale stroked Havoc suggestively.

"I hope I get to keep it."

"I do understand."

She finished, and he donned a clean blue shirt. She took the old ones and washed them in the stream. They hung them from their packs; they would dry during the day.

They hiked, again making good time, for it was a well cleared path. Then, of course, something happened. The sky brightened, and light bathed the ground. "Void is flaring," Blue said.

At first the warmth the flare brought was pleasant, but it soon got to be too much. Normally Void was a dim glow or even a darkness in the sky, sucking in the light of Vivid and leaving little for Charm. But this time Void became a full second sun, and its hot light blasted at the terrain. They had to

seek cover under a widely spreading darkness tree. Normally the canopy of light-hungry leaves was so thick that almost no light reached the ground, making a patch of gloom where nothing else grew, but this time the blaze of two suns pushed a wan glow through. The tree also absorbed the heat of the rays, making it normally quite cold below, but in this case the temperature was

pleasantly warm.

"How long do you think it will last?" Silver asked as they leaned against the cool trunk.

"It's a big flare. At least an hour. Then there may be weather, because of the stirring of the air."

"Then let's divert ourselves. I hate being bored."

"You know there's only one diversion a man seeks, and that's barred."

She considered briefly. "Maybe. Let's play a game of chance."

"What game to you have in mind?"

She brought out her silver gem. "Wagers. Your stone against mine."

"I don't want to lose my stone, or take yours. We might need their magic."

"Then let's give the loser a choice: the stone or the body."

Blue was suddenly interested, but cautious. "Your body? As in desire and touching?"

She nodded. "If I lose and want to save my stone."

Piers Anthony 527

"What if I lose?"

She laughed. "Oh, I won't really take your stone, Blue. It's just that wagers is no fun without significant forfeits."

She was right. "Very well. Wagers. Stones or bodies. How will we do it?"

"We'll each put our stone in one fist, then match fists. Even, I win.

Odd, you win." This was traditional for the genders, a woman being said to have two projections, a man one. Thus she was even, he odd.

They cupped their hands together around their stones, then separated them. Blue put out his right fist, and Silver matched it with her left. They opened their hands, and each had a gem. "Even. You win," Blue said.

"But you were supposed to win."

He shook his head. "If I did, I wouldn't want to take anything you wouldn't want to give." He held out his stone for her.

"Blue, I told you I wouldn't take your stone!"

"But that's all I have."

"I'm taking your body, for this hour. Undress it."

He stared at her. "But I thought--"

"You thought you were the only one who desired intimate action. Blue, I have this body now, and after tomorrow I may not have it any more. I want to use it just once. So I changed my mind. I thought I could be demure and yield it as a forfeit, but that didn't work. So I am exposed in my unmaidenly desire for experience. I am blushing." And she was, in her monochromatic fashion. "Now come on: oblige my victory."

Still he hesitated, though torn by desire. "But you know we have no future together, regardless of the success of the mission. Different Chroma--"

"All the more reason to do it while we can. If I get to keep this body, I'll still never again get to be with a handsome blue Chroma man."

"If you're sure."

"Stop stalling!"

He was guilty of that, finding it as hard as she did to truly believe he could be desirable to the other gender. Satisfied at last that she meant it, Blue

hesitated no longer. He got out of his clothes and welcomed her embrace.

She was amazingly ardent, and he--he was soon in love. "Oh Silver," he said after the first round. "I wish this didn't have to end."

The foreman looked as if he wanted to put a stop to this, but the "Moron" chant began, and he refrained. The two figures on the stage clasped in obvious sexual embrace, and everyone watched. Whatever the outcome of this trial, it would never be forgotten. The barbarian was making the court pay for its procedure. If the support of the common people of Triumph had 528 Key to Havoc

been in doubt before, it was not now; they loved this tale-telling minstrel king.

She kissed him. "I wish it too. Blue, you're a nice guy. I think that even with your natural body, you would be worthwhile. But of course I wouldn't be."

"Oh, I don't know." But there was too much truth for a strong denial.

He liked her mind and spirit, but it was her body that mesmerized him. Her magical body. Surely it was his magical body that had similarly tempted her.

They lay together as the star flare ebbed. "I think we expended it," Silver said, gazing out. "Too much passion."

"That must be it. Silver, I will always remember this--this gift of yours."

"It's not a gift. I claimed you as my prize."

He was satisfied to accept that. Soon the flare had subsided to the point where they could resume travel. They dressed and left the shelter of the darkness tree, finding it still hot outside, but bearable.

"There may soon be a storm, because of the heat disturbance," Blue said. "We must keep alert for other shelter."

"The village elder did warn us about the weather."

The path came onto a swampy plain, one side of which was black, and the other side green. The fringe of the red Chroma had been left behind.

The path followed a meandering river whose banks were black and green.

The water was pale red, showing its origin. There would be some magic there, but since it matched neither of their Chromas, that didn't matter for them.

"I'm not easy with this," Blue said. "There's too much cover for predators."

"I'm really not a fighter, but I can use my knife," Silver said, drawing a sleek silver blade.

"I hope you don't have to. I'll cut a staff." He found a sapling and used his own blue knife to cut it to a suitable length.

"If something threatens, and we can't avoid it, we can stand back to back and try to fend it off," Silver suggested.

"Yes. We had better have our stones ready, too."

The weather remained sultry but fair. They were nearing the far side of the plain, where a nonChroma hillside beckoned, when there was a sound.

They drew together, facing opposite ways so as to watch all around, but it seemed to be a false alarm. They resumed walking--and a green tiger pounced.

Blue saw it first, as its two front legs left the ground and its two middle legs followed. The two hind legs were still springing, launching the heavy feline toward the travelers. Its great mouth was opening, showing the enormous green saber-tusk teeth.

Piers Anthony 529

There was no time for escape or defense. Blue invoked his gemstone. It flashed bright blue in the tiger's face, and the creature bounced to the side, somehow aborting its pounce in midair. It caught its balance, facing them, and purred.

Silver's gem was now in her hand. "I can stun it with an electric shock, but then we'll have to run, because my little stone can't handle such a big animal for long."

"No need," Blue said. "I have tamed it with my stone."

"Tamed it?"

"That is the blue Chroma specialty," he reminded her. "It is incidental magic, for us. The tiger is now our friend, while the magic of this stone lasts."

"I didn't realize that blue magic would work on a green creature."

"Oh, yes. It is the color of the magic that counts, not the color of the object of it. But the effect is temporary. We had better walk with the tiger to

the far side of this swamp."

Silver nervously eyed the creature. "Walk with the tiger? I prefer to get well away from it. I'm glad you didn't hurt it--I do like animals--but I'm afraid it will hurt us."

"I like animals too, of course. But you are right: if the tiger goes beyond the range of my stone, it will revert, and try to attack us again. So we must keep it close until we can find defensive cover. We had better do so quickly, because I don't know how much time we have before the stone fades."

"Let's move," she agreed with alacrity.

They walked beside the docile tiger, and Silver even got up nerve to stroke its shaggy green fur. It had stripes of light green and dark green all across its powerful body and down its legs.

They had time. They reached the slope, dived behind a boulder, and faced back, guarding against pursuit. The tiger shook its head as if clearing it

of an obstruction, and crouched menacingly. Blue lifted his stone, and the creature changed its mind; one encounter with that magic was sufficient. It backed away, then disappeared into the brush.

They relaxed, breathing hard. "I'm sorry you had to use your stone,"

Silver said. "I'm surprised there was anything left, after it tamed the tiger."

"There wasn't," Blue said. "I was bluffing." He showed her the stone, which was now almost colorless. Its blue magic had been expended. It would regain some power, in time, but not much.

"We still have my stone," she said. "And not too far to go, I think." But she didn't sound cheerful. It was hard for a Chroma person to be without everyday magic, and Blue was now bereft of his.

530 Key to Havoc

They moved up the slope, and in due course found a place to camp for the night: a small cave, defensible by a fire in front. They set about their evening chores, had supper, and pitched their tent in the cave.

"Tonight I'll face away," Silver said.

"As you wish," Blue agreed, gratified; it would be nice, clasping her for the night, even with clothes on. The warmth would be similar, but that was only part of it.

"It's not as cold tonight. Can we manage without clothes? I'm really not used to sleeping in them."

He looked at her. "You know I--"

"Your diffidence is so quaint. Of course I know. The rules have changed, Blue. This may be our last night together."

"In that case, I think we can manage," he agreed.

They managed more than adequately. Blue had thought there could never be another experience to match that of the day, but he was mistaken.

The audience agreed.

In the morning, as they got under way, Silver kissed him once more.

"We don't know what will happen today, so I'm telling you now: I wish I didn't have to leave you. I never thought a man of a different Chroma would interest me, but this time with you has been special, and not just because of the bodies. If I get to keep this body, I could readily find a silver Chroma man, but I think I'd rather have you. You understand my inner nature."

"I agree. We have much in common, and we get along well. I think I would have loved you regardless of the bodies, but they do make it better. Do you think, if we succeed in the mission, that there is after all any way we could

be together?"

She considered. "Maybe we could find a region where the Blue and Silver Chroma overlap. Our children could choose either Chroma."

"I like that notion. Silver, I love you."

She gazed at him, her lovely eyes bright. "And I love you, Blue. Then shall we agree to marry, if we can?"

"Yes, if we can."

The audience applauded.

They kissed again. Then, conditionally betrothed, they set out on the last leg of their journey.

It was not long before a storm came up. They were crossing rolling country, largely nonChroma, when a dark wall of clouds piled over the horizon. "I think the storm from the turbulence of the flare is finally arriving,"

Blue said nervously.

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"We'd better seek cover."

They were lucky: they had passed a cave not far back. They ran for it--

and were joined by several animals, including a small green bear and a black buzzard. This was a time of crisis, and there was a temporary truce between creatures. So it had always been.

They jammed into the cave, which was already well filled. The buzzard settled on Blue's knapsack, and the bear lay before the two people, at the mouth of the cave, its bulk shielding them. Smaller wild creatures filled in all

around. Blue held his blue gem, ready to invoke what little remained of its taming magic if he had to, but it didn't seem necessary, fortunately.

The storm struck. Sleet and sand sluiced across the landscape, and the wind roared, but the refugees held firm. Silver reached out to grab a little bird

that was in danger of being blown away, and held it carefully by her shoulder, sheltered from the savagery of the tempest. A serpent anchored itself with a coil around Blue's foot. All of them huddled, trying to ride out the violence of the weather of the Void season.

There was nothing to do but wait. Blue slept, woke to the continuing roar and blast of debris, slept again, and then suddenly woke to something startling: silence. The storm had passed as abruptly as it came.

He opened his eyes, and found them caked with dirt and mucous. Then Silver was there with a damp pad, carefully wiping his eyes clear.

The animals stirred. The bear was half buried in wet sand, but its sacrifice had protected those behind. Blue used his hands to push much of the sand off, then took Silver's pad to wipe its eyes clear. The bear heaved itself

up on six legs and launched forward, opening the cave for the exit of those behind.

Stage by stage, the cave evacuated. The serpent left Blue's foot, and the buzzard left his pack. Silver let her bird fly; one of its wings was evidently injured, but it was able to be airborne on two. A cloud of insects puffed out; they had stung no one, honoring the truce. The two people kneeled beside the cave, helping those animals that needed it, until all were gone.

"This, too, is experience," Blue said. "I would not have chosen it, but I will remember it."

"Jammed in together with a bear and a buzzard," Silver agreed. She reached across to help a spider out of his hair. "There was a time when I would not have appreciated it."

"I never had to use my stone. Even fully charged, it might not have been enough, without the truce."

"Creatures know that a blue man understands them. I think your pres-532 Key to Havoc

ence protected me."

"Maybe. Or maybe they saw your stone, and decided not to antagonize you."

She laughed. "I'm not that fearsome!"

A six legged mouse was limping. Blue picked it up and examined it.

"Not serious," he said, and set it by a crevice so that it could hide while it healed.

They moved on. Desolation was everywhere. Trees had been blown over and partly buried, and new ponds had formed in the hollows. The path had been almost obliterated, but they had a general idea where to go by the larger lay of the land. They had been delayed, but it was an hour shy of noon; they could still make it if they hurried.

Silver paused, listening. "A child!"

Now Blue heard it: crying.

They detoured, orienting on the sound. They found a gnarled old stonewood tree, and wedged in a hollow in its indestructible trunk was a red child.

Havoc and Gale had gone to the back of the stage, to the door where Ennui stood. From behind Ennui came a young child dressed in red. The play now had a third cast member. The child limped.

Silver lifted her out and held her. She was perhaps six years old, and her left leg was injured; it seemed to have been crushed. The girl couldn't stand on it.

"Your stone," Blue said. "Can its electricity help?"

"It can alleviate her pain, but this is beyond its power to mend. I know, for her injury is similar to mine."

"Do that, then. I'll look for her folks."

Silver nodded grimly. It was easy enough to recreate what had happened: the storm had caught them in the open, and the parents had put their child in the safest place available, and taken their chances elsewhere. They had surely sacrificed themselves for her. The chances of their survival were slim.

Indeed, Blue soon found the bodies of a red Chroma man and woman, battered almost beyond recognition and half buried in debris, still somehow holding hands. They had loved and protected each other until the end. He struggled for a moment to bring his sudden horror and sadness under control; there was no point in making things worse.

He put on a neutral face and returned to report to Silver. The red child had quieted down, her physical pain alleviated by the silver stone she held to Piers Anthony 533

her leg, but when she saw Blue, she knew. She screamed and buried her face in Silver's shoulder.

"I will bury them," Blue said. He returned to the bodies, checked them for any possessions that might help the girl, found nothing, and scooped more mud and debris over them. He carried stones to make a cairn to mark their place, and braced a forked stick at the top to point to the sky. One side

of the fork was to signal Vivid, the other to signal Void, in the normal convention: let their souls find a home at one star or the other. The stick barely

cast a shadow.

Silver and Red joined him, and they made a brief and choked ceremony of passing. "Parting, Red Man and Red Woman," Blue said. "May your spirits find solace. We will take your daughter to her kinfolk."

"Yes," Silver agreed, and the child nodded, understanding that she would not die here.

The stick's remaining shadow disappeared. The disk of Vivid was directly overhead, marking noon.

Blue's body shrank, and his left leg hurt. He knew immediately what had happened: he had reverted to normal.

He looked at Silver. She too had shrunk, her gorgeous hair turning ropy, her body becoming skinny under clothing than no longer fit. Her left leg was twisted, and she winced as she put weight on it. She was far from pretty, yet she remained recognizable.

Havoc and Gale hunched their bodies, emulating weakness and ugliness.

Red stared at them. "What happened to you?"

How could they explain? "We had something to do," Silver said. "We didn't get there in time."

"These are our real bodies," Blue said. "We are the same people as before, just not as good. We'll still help you reach your red Chroma kin."

"Oh." Red looked confused.

Blue exchanged a glance with Silver. They had used their last hour to help the child, and so had missed their rendezvous, thus forfeiting their mission. What a price they had paid! Yet what else could they have done?

Blue touched Silver's thin hand. "I love you."

She stared at him a moment, knowing that she retained no physical inducements. "You still want to--to be betrothed?"

"Yes. I know I'm no prize, but--"

She cut him off with a kiss. That was answer enough.

Blue found sticks and vines and fashioned a travois to support the child, who could not walk. Then he and Silver hauled it across the ground toward 534 Key to Havoc

the ridge where the remnant of the path would be. It was the best they could do; with their bad legs they could not carry her. As it was, progress was slow and painful.

"We can take her back to the Red Chroma we passed," Silver said.

"No," Red said. "No one is there. We were going to another Red."

"Then we can go to the next village, and seek help," Blue said. "One way or another, we will get you there."

But Red hardly seemed comforted. She was writhing on the travois, and whimpering. Evidently the pain of her injury was returning. Yet, oddly, she did not keep the stone always at her leg; sometimes she pressed it to her head.

Silver noted his questioning look. "To abate her pain of grief," she murmured. "But the stone can't last much longer."

They tried to hurry, but it was all they could do to keep moving even slowly, and they had to stop frequently to rest. They shared their food supplies with Red, but she seemed worse, looking wildly about and shaking. "We need help," Silver murmured.

"I could go ahead and hope to bring someone back. But I don't want to leave you alone here."

She nodded, appreciating why. The truce of creatures was over; they would be highly vulnerable to predators. So they just kept hauling, not seeing any better way. At least the path was becoming clear, so they knew they would not get lost.

"Look," Silver said. "The rendezvous site."

So it was. They had been told to report at noon to a stone marker that looked like a crown. There it was. But whoever they were to meet there was gone. There was only their trail, and an intersecting one leading directly into

the Black Chroma zone.

"Oh!" Red cried. She was definitely worse, and there was even a dim red glow at her skin. The silver stone was now colorless.

Silver put her arm around the girl, trying to comfort her, but it was not possible. Red gazed wildly around, breathing rapidly, and the glow intensified.

"She's not just ill," Silver said, appalled. "She's magically ill."

Something impossible had been nagging Blue. This strange ailment--

could it possibly be? "Red," he said. "Maybe this isn't what we think. Stop fighting it. Let it take you."

"Take me?"

"Relax. Accept it. Flow with it. This may help."

Silver was alarmed. "Blue, are you sure?"

Piers Anthony 535

"I'm not at all sure. But it's obviously too strong for her anyway. If there is a chance--"

The child relaxed. Immediately her squint of pain alleviated. Her body straightened.

Then the red glow became an explosion of light that reflected off the surroundings. Rather, it imbued them, making stone, trees, and ground red.

What did this mean?

Red was shining like a beacon, her hair standing out from her head. But she was no longer crying. "It doesn't hurt any more," she said, surprised.

"It is," Blue said. "It really is."

Silver's eyes went round as she caught his import, but her voice was almost controlled. "Red--can you heal your leg?"

The child looked at her crushed leg. "Of course." The red light coalesced around it, and suddenly it was whole. The girl got off the travois and stood without difficulty. "Okay?"

"Red," Silver whispered, awed. "You have erupted into Glamor."

Blue knew that she was right. The child had assumed the aspect of Glamor Red.

"Gee--what do I do now?" Red asked.

She was a Glamor--but still also a child. "We don't know," Silver said.

This was beyond anything they had imagined.

"I'll go seek Glamor Black," Blue said. "I should be able to signal him not far into the Black Chroma. He'll know what to do."

"Yes," Silver said. "Hurry."

Blue ran limpingly down the path into the black Chroma. His leg hurt, but he overrode the pain. He had to get the right kind of help, for no one but a Glamor understood Glamor business.

A black woman appeared before him. "Ho, intruder," she said. "What is your business here?"

"We have," Blue gasped, then tried again. "We have a Glamor Red child.

I must speak to Glamor Black."

The woman looked startled. Then she vanished.

Havoc went to stand before the Chroma Representatives, opposite the one in black. It was a minstrel's privilege to borrow freely from the audience,

generating participants by his mere manner. The Representative did not move.

In a moment another black figure appeared. This one glowed, and had a phenomenal demeanor. Blue felt the aura of powerful Black magic. He knew immediately that he was in the presence of a Glamor. "Glamor, please,"

he said. "I beg your indulgence. We have a--"

536 Key to Havoc

"Yes." Then Blue floated up, supported by controlled enchantment, and moved rapidly back the way he had come, paced by the black figure.

Actually Gale and the child came to join Havoc, before the Black Chroma Representative, who was being used as an involuntary prop.

In a moment they arrived at the red-stained crown marker. Blue found himself standing beside Silver, facing the red child.

Glamour Black looked at Glamor Red. "You are in need of parents," he said. "Take this blue man and this silver woman; they are worthy."

"I know," Glamor Red agreed. "But they are ugly and lame."

"Restore them."

The child's eyes brightened. "I can do that?" Then she answered her own question. "Yes, of course I can." She looked at Blue and Silver, and suddenly they were the strong and handsome couple they had been for two days.

"But--" Blue protested, trying to grasp the significance.

"We are inadequate," Silver said. "We know nothing of--"

Glamor Black dismissed that with a glance. He knew the state of their adequacy better than they did.

"I will be your fourth," Red said gladly. Then, to Glamor Black: "Can you marry them now, and adopt me to them?"

Black faced them again. "Do the two of you, Blue man and Silver woman, agree to be married, with Glamor Red as your fourth child?"

There was no option of demurral; the overwhelming presence of the two Glamors made that clear. "Yes," they said together.

Red ran to hug them both. "Thank you," she said. "I will make you glad." That was surely a considerable understatement.

"You have already done that, dear," Silver said.

"Take them to your Chroma," Glamor Black said, and vanished with a salute.

"Yes," Glamor Red said, returning the salute to the space Glamor Black had stood. The three of them lifted into the air and moved across the landscape. It was the enormous power of her new magic, that operated not merely in the Red Chroma, but anywhere on the planet. Exactly as Glamor Black's did.

Blue realized that this suddenly and amazingly, he and Silver had found the way to be together, despite failing their mission. They would live in the Red Chroma, because Glamor Red wished it to be, and no one would question it. Whatever the child needed would be provided, because of what she was. Actually she didn't need them at all, with the incalculable power she had Piers Anthony 537

come into.

"Yes I do need you," Red said, reading his thought. "You loved me before I erupted. You sacrificed your welfare for me. You shared my injury.

Only you can be real parents to me, now that mine are gone."

Silver seemed about to faint. "How could this happen, when we didn't even get to our mission?"

"This is your mission," Red said.

Blue and Silver stared at each other as the elements of it fell into place.

Not the location, but the child--they had been with her as noon came and her symptoms began. They had carried her through the difficult transition so that she could emerge as a Glamor. It was indeed their mission. But by what wild coincidence had they been selected for it?

"I think it was your understanding and your good hearts," Red said. "I think not just anyone can be the parents of a young Glamor. I have power now, but you will have to guide me. I think I will need to grow up to use it wisely."

"We'll do our best," Blue said. Then he kissed Silver. It was evident that their reward was far greater than mere bodies. They had a remarkable mission ahead.

"

Now I have thoroughly invoked the Glamors," Havoc said as Gale and the girl moved back to give him the center of the stage. "I have spoken of them in full public. May they now strike me down--if they exist." He paused, raising his arms, inviting a strike from the sky.

There was a sudden hush. The tale had held the attention of the audience, especially the people of the city. But this sudden defiance of the Glamors was something else.

The Black Chroma representative spoke, plainly alarmed. "Sire, do not do this. You have no quarrel with the Glamors."

Havoc whirled to face the man. "Yes I do. Someone has been trying to kill me, and now to depose me, and I think it's the Glamors, if there are any such things. If so, I want it out in the open. I will be thrall to no anonymous

power." He turned toward the larger audience again. "Witness, that I am challenging the Glamors to strike me openly, or forever let me be. For unless I am destroyed now, I mean to be king in substance as well as image."

He waited, but no strike came. "Then I declare the Glamors to be non-participatory, and will proceed to eliminate the lesser threats to my reign.

By

the power of the Emergency Protocols of the Crown, I hereby dissolve the 538 Key to Havoc

mechanism of the Crown Assessment, and dismiss this court that has presented these ludicrous charges against me. All powers hitherto ascribed to them I hereby absorb into the office and person of the king. Henceforth the king shall answer to no anonymous entity, but only to the will of the people and the Chroma."

"That will has already been expressed," the foreman of the court said.

"Both have decided against you."

Havoc's dragon seed buzzed, as it had the first time this announcement was made. "So you claim," he said. "But I say this is false. They voted for me,

and you faked the tally."

The foreman's mouth opened, but for a moment he could not speak.

He was plainly outraged by the accusation.

"I will prove it." Havoc spread his arms toward the huge audience.

"What say the people?"

There was a massive roar of applause and support. There was no question: the barbarian had won the loyalty of the ordinary citizens.

He faced the Chroma Representatives. "What say the Chroma?"

There was consternation among the Representatives. Then Symbol spoke.

"Sire, we cannot answer without consulting our home Chroma."

"Yes you can. Take an individual tally now: how did each Chroma vote?

We will compare that to the tally the court claims."

The foreman of the court jumped to his feet. "You can't do this! You're a mere figurehead. We hold the power."

Beautiful: he had succeeded in rattling the man, who was now speaking from anger. "Not any more, moron," Havoc said. "I have taken it back."

"You can't do that. There is no basis."

"Study your Protocols," Havoc said. He glanced at Ennui, who walked across the stage and presented the man with a scroll. "Your faked tallies will be exposed. The people support me, and so do a majority of the Chroma. I am assuming emergency crisis power, in accordance with the Protocols; even if you manage to depose me later, you can't stop me right now."

The foreman opened his mouth to protest further, but another member of the court cautioned him again. Havoc was indeed within his rights. He had outmaneuvered them on their own turf, thanks to the hint given by King Cheer.

"Now to the next item of business," Havoc continued, giving them no chance to recover. "The rooting out of corruption. There are many good officers in the king's service, but some bad ones. I shall now call out the names of the bad ones, who shall be immediately arrested and held in deten-Piers Anthony 539

tion pending confirmation of their crimes, and execution for treason." He paused, but this time there was no protest; the members of the court and the Chroma Representatives were staring at him, stunned by his audacity and the headlong rush of surprising events. They weren't accustomed to barbarian warfare. This also spoke well for the Lady Aspect, who had managed to get the data without alerting anyone.

"Purser Downbeat," Havoc announced. "Embezzlement of royal gems."

Throe signaled, and two men detached from his formation and went rapidly to take hold of one of the prominent members of the front audience.

The man's mouth was hanging open; this had caught him by complete surprise.

"Officer Cornrow. Rape of civilian women under false arrest." Two more guards went after another man in the front audience.

Havoc continued calling out names, and the arrests were publicly made.

The larger audience, at first amazed, began to greet the names with applause; they knew of much of the corruption, having suffered by it, and were gratified to see it so suddenly ending. Even a few of the Chroma Representatives were nodding appreciatively; they too had known of the bad men. Symbol was openly smirking under her veil; she was holding it tight against her face so

that it outlined her mouth.

Suddenly an arrow flew from above the audience. It struck the figure of Havoc in the face, and exploded. Gale and the child in red screamed and clutched each other. The king's head became a fireball. Then the body fell, headless.

The crown that should have protected the king was still sitting at the side of the stage, supposedly forgotten.

The audience stared for a moment, aghast. Then it erupted into chaos.

"Murder! Murder!"

"Trace that shot!" Throe cried, righteously furious. "Bring me that king killer!" His men, well trained, leaped to obey. The assassin would very soon be in custody, or dead, if the audience got to him first.

Havoc smiled. The dragon seed had not buzzed again, knowing that he was in no immediate danger. He was standing behind a screen, in the room behind Ennui, able to see without being seen. They didn't know that it was his golem that had been destroyed. Havoc had been operating it from the chamber Ennui guarded. Gale was real, but the king wasn't. She had treated the golem throughout exactly as she would have treated Havoc, even to the extent of enduring sex with it. No one had suspected. Only Gale, Ennui, and Throe had known. Havoc had done his best to trigger an assassination attempt, and had succeeded. The one person the Lady Aspect had not been 540 Key to Havoc

able to identify had not realized that he remained anonymous, and had acted before his name was called out. He had given himself away, and would soon be caught unless his hired assassin managed to die before being questioned.

Even then, there were ways to trace the connection; he would not escape.

The worst danger had been handled. Once that threat had been eliminated, Havoc would reveal his ruse, and be king.

The court foreman was on his feet. "The king has been assassinated!

Power devolves on us, in this emergency!"

Havoc smiled. The man had a disappointment coming.

But before anyone else could move, a black male figure materialized in the center of the stage. It glowed with a phenomenal presence. "This annoys us," he said.

For a moment, the anarchy abated. Court members, Chroma Representatives, and audience froze in place. All heads turned to stare at the surreal figure. So did Havoc. How could this be? The Glamors didn't exist.

Then the Black Chroma representative cried out desperately: "Glamor!

Spare them! They know not what they--"

The Glamor merely gestured. All the men who had been arrested imploded, leaving only drifting flakes of black ashes. Several more in the audience, not yet identified but on the list, disintegrated similarly. Two members of the court also collapsed. Those surprised Havoc; their corruption must have been beyond Aspect's power to penetrate. The foreman, however, remained; he might be misguided, but not corrupt.

Glamor Black stood for a moment more. The Black Chroma Representative spoke again. "Glamor, how many Chroma support the king?" It was a curious question, in the circumstance, since the king was supposed to be dead.

Unless the Black Chroma Representative somehow knew the truth.

The Glamor made a dismissive gesture. "All of them."

"But King Havoc is dead!" another Representative cried.

Chroma Black frowned. "Red will come." Then he faded out.

But in his place another figure appeared. This one was red, and female.

She too glowed with the aura of her power. "Thank you, Black," she said, her voice dulcet yet possessed of vital authority. Then she looked at the chamber Ennui guarded. There was a flash of red, for a moment blinding Havoc. He felt dizzy.

Suddenly Havoc was no longer in the chamber or behind the screen. He was lying on the floor at Chroma Red's feet, where the dead golem had been.

She had seen through the ruse, and brought him to her. The crown was back on his head.

Piers Anthony 541

"Rise, King Havoc," she said. "Rule, with our blessing."

Havoc got to his feet. People all around him stared; to them it seemed that the Glamor had just brought him back to life. That would have been an impossible feat, even for a Glamor, had it been his real head lost. She evidently knew how to use what was available.

She looked up at him. She was red throughout, and stunningly beautiful.

"You intrigue us." Her personal magnetism enfolded him. It was not possible to resist. The crown provided no protection against her evocative power.

She was not only real, but overwhelming. In a moment he would be her complete love slave.

"Glamor!" he cried. "Don't take me! I have business to accomplish.

Don't take me!"

She nodded. "Not yet," she said, with mixed humor and regret. "And we must not help you find your enemy." She faded away.

Havoc stood unsteadily, staring at the place she had been. His doubt about the existence and power of the Glamors had been banished. Yet he was amazed. They had ignored his arrogant summons, then appeared in their own time and manner--and publicly supported him. This was not only dra-matic, but generous. What kind of entities were they?

Then others were around him, his women, escorting him away from the chaos of the stage and audience, while his men set about reestablishing order.

They took him unresisting back to the king's apartment.

The Lady Aspect carefully wiped his face with a silken handkerchief.

"You are fortunate," she murmured. "Glamor Red was about to take you."

"I know. I would have gone gladly."

"You did it, Havoc," Gale said. "You took power and destroyed the enemies."

"The enemy," he said thoughtfully. "I thought the Glamors were the enemy, if they existed."

"Now we know," Symbol said. "They do exist--and they are not your enemy. They proved that."

"Yet Glamor Red told me that they must not help me find my enemy,"

he said. "Which means that this day's cleanup has not yet done the job."

"Must not help you?" Ennui asked.

"They must know something we don't," he said. "This must be more complicated than we know."

"Your story must have summoned them," Bijou said. "You spoke of the Black Glamor, and the Red Glamor, so they came."

"I thought it was random," he said. "I didn't know their ages or genders, 542 Key to Havoc

or if they ever participated in mere human events. I thought I was making them up."

"Maybe they put themselves into your mind," Ennui said. "It looked as though you liked Glamor Red, who might be the age of the child you described, if your story happened a few years ago."

"She--you know the personal attraction the changelings have?" He shook his head. "She has so much more of it that I love her already. But I have to finish the job I started."

"I think you did intrigue them," Symbol said. "So they played your game, to a degree. And they were annoyed that others were trying to interfere with you, so they interceded."

"Of course your story was nonsense," Ennui said. "It presumes pre-cognition, which is a form of magic that surely doesn't exist. But if they had it, why would they have let the Red Chroma parents die, orphaning the child?

They would have saved the parents, instead of going to all that trouble to put together a new family."

"Nonsense," Havoc agreed. "But it served its purpose: to evoke the Glamors, or prove that they didn't exist. I thought it would be the latter, but

I wasn't sure."

"And now we are back to square one," Symbol said. "We still don't know who killed King Deal and tried to kill you, and we have no suspects. We have to start all over."

"And I still don't know whether I can marry Gale," Havoc agreed ruefully. "And I can't resign as king until we solve these mysteries."

"You should have asked the Glamors," Gale said.

"I should have," he agreed. "I didn't think of it."

"Poor thing," Bijou said. "Let me comfort you." She embraced his head, drawing it into her soft bosom.

"Hey, don't leave us out," Symbol said. In a moment Havoc was buried in bosoms. It was fun--but he knew that the challenges remaining were unlikely to be any fun at all. He had hardly gotten into this business of being

king, but he had already discovered how hard it was to get out of it intact.

What did his future, and that of the kingdom, hold? He anticipated it with mixed fascination and dread. The havoc he had generated at the court hearing was but a reflection of what was in his mind and heart at the moment.

Piers Anthony 543

Author's NoteAuthor's Note

In 1997 I had been seeing Xanth novels published for twenty years. I like Xanth; it put me on the map as a bestselling writer. But I never wanted to

be limited to it. Xanth was humorous because at first I just couldn't take fantasy seriously, but with more experience that changed. It was time to move on.

So I conceived the ChroMagic series. That's Chroma as in color: magic color. At first I thought there would be a number of different moons casting their colored light and bringing their flavors of magic, but my researcher of the time informed me that that had already been done in a game related series.

Oh. So I pondered a while, and thought of volcanoes: had that been done before? No. Okay, so volcanoes it was. And the fact is, that worked out so well that I'm glad of it; I love the colored world. I was an aspiring artist before I was an aspiring writer; that's long behind me, but I retain a visual mode when writing. I actually see the scenes I am creating; I am in them. I love it when readers tell me they see them and are in them too; we have truly connected. So in this series I painted my words in magic colors.

I have a number of analogies for writing. It is like building a highway: first you have to survey the terrain to see not only where you want it to go, but

544 Key to Havoc

what the lay of the land is, so you can guide around a mountain, avoid a lake, and keep it fairly level. Then you have to obtain the rights to the land you need, which may mean buying and destroying some houses or cutting through someone's ranch. It gets complicated before you ever bring in your construction equipment. Then you have to bulldoze, fill, level, pound, and get it in shape on a deadline despite the inclement weather, a threatened strike by workers, and a lawsuit by someone who claims mineral rights to your key section. Only then can you start work on the surfacing. It's a big job. When you do build it, critics who never made a highway will carp endlessly about the

details of it. Thus a regular novel.

But a major series is worse. For that I think of a pyramid. An enormous area has to be cleared and leveled. Then huge stones must be hauled in and laid in regular courses. The foundation has to be right. Spectators will remark on how they could build a higher structure faster by laying blocks on top of each other, rather than beside each other. But the entire base must be worked out before the second course is started. It's a slow business, but necessary to make sure everything is consistent. Years may pass before the grandeur of the whole slowly becomes apparent. This is true regardless of the genre or type. Big projects require big vision and a lot of patient work.

Here, in capsule, is the genesis of this big novel and series, subject to whatever analogy seems comfortable. On March 1, 1997, while wrapping up the Xanth novel Zombie Lover, I started a new file titled "Colors." "Realizing that GEODYSSEY [my historical series] may be finished after this year, to my deep regret," I wrote, "and that Xanth is being run into oblivion by [the publisher], [my wife] suggested that I try a different fantasy series, quarter million word novels of the scope of those by Goodkind, Brooks, and Drake.

Heroic fantasy is the one type I haven't done. Such a series would not require heavy research, so I could complete a novel within six months, and I could do as good a job at it as anyone. This might enable me to rebuild my career, if I had the right publisher." I continued surveying and laying blocks, and by the end of the month had 12,500 words of notes, and no text. I had the series title, ChroMagic, but not the novel title. I considered Crown of Thorns, because Havoc did not want to be king, but when I checked BOOKS IN PRINT

I discovered there was already a book by that title. I wrestled with it, and decided on April 16 to try King Havoc, as relevant and suggestive.

With that, the last preliminary detail was in place, after a month and a half and 21,000 words notes. That day I started with my first 1,000 words of text. "One thousand years ago a ship of space orbited a luxurious world girt by many colors, and landed a colony of its own kind. One thousand individu-Piers Anthony 545

als, male and female, together with initial supplies, tools, and cells of many supplementary species. The ship departed, and the colony fended for itself."

Well, as you may have noticed, that didactic prologue did not survive; reconsideration and editing returned me to my normal mode, which is to get the hell on with the action. "The boy made his way swiftly but carefully through the forest, stepping in patterns reminiscent of a game." That opening sentence survived unchanged. The second was "It was as though there was a path that only he could see..." That survived too, but a description of his staff was added before it. This is the way revision and editing work. After another month, and further discussion with my wife and my researcher Alan Riggs, I concluded that the existing title would not do; there were other titles

galore that were similar, like King Conan, making this unoriginal. Damn it, I prefer to be original; it's one of my failings as a prospective best-selling nov-elist. How about The Charm of Havoc? Or maybe Key to Havoc, as that started with a K so I wouldn't have to change the location of my King Havoc direc-tory. It was the last one that stuck, after a while.

I completed the first chapter in April, and wrote a summary of the remainder in May. I revised and edited it, and sent it to my literary agent as a sample for marketing. Meanwhile I got to work on my GEODYSSEY novel Climate of Change, hoping that series was not yet dead. Unfortunately it was, and in mid April 1998 I resumed work on Key to Havoc, though it had not found a publisher. I'm a writer; I write, and this was a project I really liked,

market or no. It moved well, and I completed it in August, a thousand manu-script page, 250,000 word novel, and sent it to my agent. Two years later, in 2000, I wrote the sequel, Key to Chroma, of similar length, that picks up where

the first leaves off, and after another two years, in 2002, I wrote the third, Key

to Destiny. Two more are projected, if the success of the first three make them

viable: Key to Liberty and Key to Survival.

Not only did none of them sell, most publishers declined even to look at them. All they wanted from me was Xanth, and if they couldn't have that, too bad, and I was on my own. I think three publishers did look, and bounced: this wasn't Xanth. It's no secret that I consider publishers as a class to be idiots, stupider than any person within them, like a mob. They chase baying after last year's bestsellers and are blind to what may be next year's successes.

Editors seem not to trust their own judgment--which may mean they aren't entirely obtuse--so don't like to take chances on anything that isn't a clone of

last year. They follow rules that look crazy to ordinary folk, such as that no real sex is allowed in fantasy, or big novels cost too much to print. There's only so much of this nonsense I care to put up with. After five years of 546 Key to Havoc

unsuccessful marketing of the big sexy ChroMagic series, I'm doing an end run around this witless blockade and putting it into print via a small press publisher, so that readers can decide for themselves whether it is worthwhile.

We'll see, in due course.

Meanwhile, some stray notes. I want it known that I wrote Chapter 2, with the survival motif, in 1998, before the TV Survivor series started; I didn't

copy it from anyone. The idea of telepathy as a disease was suggested to me by a reader. To my tooth-gnashing frustration I can't find the letter after 5

years so can't give proper credit for a great idea. I used the name Shrapnel in

my earlier Space Tyrant series and forgot, but I suppose I can get away with it

here also.

Some themes of the series are not given the play in this first novel that they are in later ones: the linguistic convention of making a one word initial statement is indicated here mainly by "Greeting" and "Parting," but that's just

the beginning. Folk say "Expletive!" instead of cussing, as Gale does once, and "Excitement," "Disbelief," "Wonder," "Outrage!" and many other terms, followed by more detailed discussions. When a man says "Curiosity" or "Question" he is asking for information or clarification. When a woman says "Love"

to a man, she's not fooling. When a child says "Obscenity" he gets punished.

It is my secret hope (don't tell!) that readers will like this descriptive short-hand as I do and start using it in role playing games and maybe even reality, much as they did with Robert Heinlein's grokking and sharing water. There's more than one way to change the world.

Then there is no fault. When Chroma folk need to travel beyond their Chroma, they don't want to be helpless targets for brigands, so they generally arrange to travel in company, in guarded caravans or at least with other people.

Men tend to be better at hauling loads and defending themselves with weapons; women know the domestic arts like cooking and sewing. So a man may travel with a woman he has never met before, and for the duration of the hike he protects her as if she is his wife, even risking his life on her behalf, and she

cooks for him and gives him sex as if he is her husband. When they arrive where they are going they separate and say no more about it, having no further obligation to each other. It is no fault. No one else questions this; it is

understood. It's not limited; there can be no fault friendship between two men, as no fault brothers, or no fault parent and child association. Whatever works. But there are those who seem to love to travel, for some reason.

I also use inset stories in this series, as seen by several examples in this novel. The stories use similar conventions to those of the general culture, sometimes with special twists, such as man-woman no fault travel that turns Piers Anthony 547

into real love though both are married elsewhere. That's forbidden love that can keep the audiences of minstrels rapt. I came to know and like the art of the inset story in the Arabian Nights tales, and have used it on occasion in Xanth and notably in Firefly. I have more ideas than I can use, being a natural

story writer who writes novels instead; I have a huge Idea file listing hundreds

of notions, and when I need a story, I go there. That's where the story of the paralyzed teacher and his ardent student came from, and the illusion video Symbol shows of the handsome young man and the disfigured older woman.

Some are substantial; one in the second novel, "Dancer," about the journey of an old man and girl child, no fault grandfather-granddaughter, runs 14,000

words and I think could be the basis for a great motion picture, had movie moguls the wit to see it.

Thus this series, which I regard as my best serious fantasy. The sequel goes into the Glamors in much more detail, and the third one explores the sister world Mystery or Counter-Charm, each novel wilder than the preceding one. The driving force is Havoc's determination to solve the riddle of his origin, and to complete his necessary service as king so he can settle down with Gale, if their status as changelings does not prevent it. Yet some mysterious and powerful force opposes him. There are spectacular revelations coming. But at heart it's the realm of ChroMagic with its adventure and its culture--a realm I love to immerse myself in, regardless what's happening there. I hope you do too.

548 Key to Havoc

Piers Anthony is one of the world's most pro-

lific and popular authors. His fantasy Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and have been on the New

York Times Best Seller list many times. Although Piers is mostly known for fantasy and science

fiction, he has written several novels in other

genres as well, including historical fiction, martial arts, and horror. Piers lives with his lovely wife in a secluded woods hidden deep in Central

Florida.

Want to learn more about Piers Anthony?

Piers Anthony's official website is HI PIERS at www.hipiers.com, where he

publishes his bi-monthly online newsletter. HI PIERS also has a section reviewing many of the online publishers and self-publishing companies for your reference if you are looking for a non-traditional solution to publish your book.

Pier's largest fan-based website is The Compleat Piers Anthony at www.piers-

anthony.com. The Compleat Piers Anthony contains extensive information about all the books and stories that Piers has written, as well as up-to-date information about forthcoming books.

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