Two To The Fifth by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

attracted to me. Even part-human, like the witch and the dust devil. Why should this be? I am in doubt that most women are so foolish as to be guided only by appearance.”
    “It is similar to my situation,” Sofia said. “The ambiance governs. They knew through some subtle foresight that you were about to become a play producer All women want to be actresses, could they but confess it to themselves.”
    “All women are actresses,” Wira said.
    Sofia nodded. “Of course. They were playing up to you in the hope that you would cast them in nice roles.”
    “That must be it.” he agreed. “But as yet I have no plays to cast anyone in, let alone a bevy of young women.”
    “So you will write plays to make suitable parts for them. Then you will be properly armed.”
    “I will,” he said, amazed anew, “I am already getting ideas, thanks to your insights. But how can doing this enable me to be summoned by Ragna Roc?”
    “This is the real challenge.” Sofia said. “You must write and produce plays so interesting and entertaining that audiences will throng to see them. In time Ragna will learn about it, and want to see them for himself. He will summon you and your troupe for a command performance.”
    “And the Three Princesses will be part of the troupe,” Cyrus said, seeing it.
    “Exactly, Of course the Princesses will be in disguise. You will treat them exactly as ordinary girls. Which, really they are, apart from their power No one must catch on to their identity as Sorceresses.”
    “I don't know how it can be concealed. The moment they do real magic—”
    “They will weave an ambient spell to conceal their nature, and an aversion spell to make others incurious about them. But you will know, and help mask them, in the event one forgets and lets go with a spell. They are after all children, apt to be impulsive. You will be the responsible adult.”
    “That's ironic.” Cyrus said. “And I don't mean to pun on my metal skeleton. I am only two years old myself.”
    “But crafted as a twenty-year-old adult. Your memories and responses are adult, even though you were never a child.”
    “I am adult,” he agreed. “I will treat them as children. But I'll never forget that they are Sorceresses.”
    “That is sensible. If there is one person you never want to truly annoy, it is a Sorceress. A woman scorned is trouble, and a Sorceress scorned is downright dangerous.”
    “But neither can you afford to treat them with undue respect,” Wira said. “Lest you give away their nature.”
    “I feel unqualified.”
    “The Challenges showed you had the necessary qualities,” Sofia said. “You will handle it.”
    “I hope so. Still, the larger mission is daunting. I wish I had some guidelines.”
    “There is a guideline,” Wira said, “Magician Humfrey told me. It is Two to the Fifth.”
    “Two to the Fifth? I am not making much sense of that. What does it mean?”
    “We don't know,” Sofia said, “Himself's pronouncements tend to be obscure. Sometime I wonder whether he knows their meaning himself. But they are invariably relevant.”
    “You will simply have to figure it out,” Wira said.
    “I am at a loss. Two perhaps I can understand. Could that mean that there will be two main characters in this play, I mean mission? Myself and another?”
    “Maybe yourself and your woman,” Sofia said. “The right woman can make a man.”
    “And the wrong one can break him,” Wira said.
    “So I had better be sure the right one selects me.”
    Both women nodded.
    “But what about the Fifth?” he asked. “If we have two, must they go to find a fifth person? Who would that be?”
    “We don't know,” Sofia said. “But presumably you are the one equipped to figure it out.”
    “Maybe if I find the right woman, or she finds me, she'll be able to fathom it.”
    “There is that hope,” Sofia agreed, “We have done what we can. Probably your best course will be to write a play, then go out to recruit