With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

was bored with lovemaking. She wasn't; in fact it seemed more likely that her visions represented a transcendent overflow of pleasure. When a system was stimulated beyond its rated capacity, it could short out or blow off; could this be why the images were so far removed from the present experience?
     
    She had no decent answer-but she would be glad to explore the matter further. She liked making love to Cedric, and she liked the visions, even if the thematic connection between the two was tenuous. "Oh, Cedric!" she exclaimed, hugging him again. "I'm so glad we found each other at last!"
     
    "You're still the perfect woman," he said, and fell asleep.
     
    "You foolish man," she murmured fondly, and nibbled on his ear.
     
    Cedric completed his first year of college with outstanding grades and came home for the summer. He now knew more than Niobe did about the wetlands, and she was fascinated by the lore he had acquired. He would squat by a stagnant pool and scoop out a handful of glop and show her how the algae in it emitted little spells of nausea to discourage such interference. It was true; when she came close to the handful, she felt like retching, but when she stepped back she felt all right. Of course the smell might account for it-but it didn't help to hold her nose, so she was satisfied that it was, as he said, magic. He was able to identify the exact species of water oak near their cabin, and the variety of hamadryad too. He knew where the timid forest deer hid and what their preferred forage was. "I owe it all to you, Niobe," he said generously. "You showed me the wetlands!"
     
    "I'll cry, I'll cry when the wetlands are dry," she agreed, smiling. How little had she realized what her innocent song would start!
     
    And of course they made love again, for the first time at home, erasing their prior failures here. Once more she launched into vision-but this time it was sinister. She saw the face of a saturnine man-and that man's mouth curled into a sneer, and he winked at her. She screamed and snapped from the vision to find Cedric frozen in midmotion, horrified that he had somehow hurt her.
     
    "No, no," she reassured him immediately. "It wasn't you! I had a bad dream."
     
    "You were asleep?" he asked incredulously.
     
    Then she had to tell him of the visions, for the misunderstanding would be worse than the reality. He admitted that he did not have such visions, but had heard of those who did. "Mostly women," he concluded.
     
    "Oh? How do you know about women?" she asked archly.
     
    "My text in human biology," he said. "It's one of the freshman required courses."
     
    So she was, after all, typical. "But the awful face- why would I see that, when I'm having such joy of you?"
     
    He shrugged. "Maybe we should stop those visions."
     
    "Oh, Cedric, I don't want to stop-"
     
    "I said visions, not love!" he said, laughing. He was no longer shy about sex; once he had gotten into it, he liked it. "I'll try to sing to you, next time."
     
    The notion appealed to her. The rapture of his magic superimposed on that of the loveplay-the ultimate experience!
     
    They tried it, and it worked. He did not even have to sing aloud; if he ran the song through in his mind, the orchestra played for her, and no visions came, no matter how transported she was by the experience.
     
    So it went through the summer. In the fall it was time for college again, and she packed him off with genuine regret. But he had a real future, once he completed his education, and she refused to deny him that. She would suffer through the separation and visit him often.
     
    But it was harder on her than she had anticipated. She felt chronically out of sorts, and sometimes ill. Then she got nauseous in the mornings. What was wrong with her?
     
    Suddenly she realized: she wasn't ill-she was with child.
     
    She had to tell him, of course. She did so on the next visit. Cedric was amazed at what he had wrought, and pleased. "I'll be a father!" he