"Naomi, I've been thinking." said Ianthe that night. True to Gavin's wishes--though said boy was asleep again, peacefully now--the Applebus crew was staying at their present site until a word from Gavin to do otherwise. Much of the group was asleep outside, since it was warm and the clear sky was filled with stars--and it was very late. But Naomi, Ianthe, Aubrey, and Blake were still inside, watching Gavin, who was still recuperating from his spasm that morning, and still tended to sleep only fitfully. That is, they were all supposed to be watching Gavin, but Blake and Aubrey had also succumbed to sleep, so now it was only Naomi and Ianthe, who were the best at staying up late. [And, jeesh, don't I know it. Every time I go to one of your houses for the night, I'm out like a light by one, and then I wake up at five or something and find you guys still wide awake, ready to inform me of all the ridiculous things I said in my sleep. Hehe... careful with the tools, right? *eg* Zinni, I don't know about you. Sometimes you're more like me in that regard, sometimes more like them. Does your inability to take sides apply even to that? *g*]
        "Mmm?" asked Naomi absently, returning from a daydream (evening-dream?).
        "I said I've been thinking." repeated Ianthe.
        "Oh, okay...are you sure?" asked Naomi, grinning.
        Ianthe smiled (not that that's unusual enough to have to state!). "Not totally--but I might have a plan about what to do next."
        "We could use one. What's the idea?"
        "What's the idea? 'The idea' is defined as 'something, such as a thought or conception, that potentially or actually exists in the mind as--'" Ianthe began in her best instructive tone.
        Naomi cuffed her lightly to the arm, ending her definition. "Not that meaning of 'what's the idea?'! Meaning, what is your idea?"[Ooo. I'm actually going *along* with a Daffy plan..?!]
        "I know." Ianthe said, grinning. "But anyway, my plan--Gavin mentioned that he heard a voice that said his way home lies in the cave, right?"
        "Yeah." said Naomi.
        "Well, what if it was the cave we were in the one time? The one we got to when Daphne got trapped in the bubble, and we all went with her?"
        Naomi considered. "Could be...but everything still all depends on what Gavin wants to do. I think we should give it a shot, but maybe he doesn't want to."
        "Yeah." said Ianthe. "Plus, we'd have to remember which button we pushed to get there."
        "Maik would know, I bet." said Naomi. "We'll ask him when he wakes up."
        "Ask who? Me?" came a sleepy voice. Gavin's eyes slowly opened.
        "Oh, hi, Gav." said Naomi. "And no, not you. We meant Maik. Feeling any stronger?"
        "Yeah." Gavin said, stretching without a sign of weakness. "I'm not totally recovered, but I think I could walk on my own a bit now."
        "Want to try?" asked Naomi.
        "Yeah." replied Gavin again. "Let's see." He slowly hoisted himself to his feet, propping himself up on the seat cushion, then slowly took a step forward, then another, then another. "I'm still a little tired," he said, "but it's working. So anyway, what are we asking Maik?"
        "Actually," said Naomi, "what we were going to ask Maik has to do with you. See, the voice you heard said that your way home lies in the cave, right?"
        "Right." said Gavin. His eyes lit. "Do you know which one?"
        "Well, we don't know." continued Naomi. "But we might. We're not sure, but we might."
        "We found it not long ago." said Ianthe. "It's a bit of a ways to get to--and you have to ride way up high, inside a bubble--"
        "Cool!" interposed Gavin.
        "--But we're not sure, of course, if it's the one we're looking for. Still, we wanted to know if you wanted to go and see."
        "And if you do, we need to see if Maik remembers which button'll take us there." added Naomi.
        "Well..." began Gavin, considering. "I guess it couldn't hurt. If Daphne's right, and I've got all the time I need, then--" Just then he stumbled on something and wavered for a bit, trying to get his balance. Naomi and Ianthe went to his side to steady him.
        "You okay?" they asked in unison. [I was going to say "in chorus", but I figured Daffy would make some sort of joke about us being back home and in school already.]
        "Yeah, I'm okay...but what's this?" Gavin asked. He slowly knelt to the floor of the Applebus and pulled up a small metal ring, attached to the Applebus floor like a latch to something.
        "I don't know...pull it up." Ianthe said.
        "Can you help? It's pretty tight to the floor." Gavin asked.
        "Sure." replied Ianthe. She put a finger in the metal ring and tugged. To her (and everyone else's) surprise, a smallish square door swung out, revealing five rectangular stone steps. A bright electric light shone at the foot of the stairs. The end of the stairs also showed tiled floor.
        "Whoa." said Gavin. "How does another room fit under the floor?"
        "I don't know...I don't even know what it is." replied Naomi.
        "Let's go see." said Ianthe. "You first, Gavin. You found it."
       "I don't think I can do stairs yet." pointed out Gavin. "But I want to see it...here..." He sat down on the first step and slowly lowered himself down from step to step until he reached the tiled floor below. He crawled forward, to where the light was. "Hey, look." he said. "To the left is a room--it's got showers! Oh, and a bathroom, too. But mostly showers. Kind of like a locker room or something."[Wa-hoo! yet *another* blatant defiance of physics! *g*]
        "Let me see!" said Naomi, hopping down the steps, Ianthe at her heels. They reached the bottom and looked to the left, over Gavin, who was still sitting on the floor. "You're right!" Naomi cried. "Showers, you guys! Whenever we want!"
        "What's that, you guys?" Blake's sleepy voice called from above. "Where'd that door come from?"
        "Gavin found it." said Naomi, turning back and ascending the short flight of steps. "It's a bathroom-and-locker-room kind of thing. Low ceiling, but then, it kind of has to be."
        "Oh." said Blake. "Nice." He went back to sleep.
        Gavin came up next, climbing on foot but with one hand grabbing Ianthe's arm to steady himself. "So anyway, can we wake up Maik?"
        "Oh, right!" replied Naomi. "I'm on it." She opened the door of the Applebus and entered the warm, starry night.

        Late the next afternoon, the entire crew, including the just-awakened Ianthe and Naomi, clambered out of the Applebus into the meadow by the flowing river of bubbles. As before, Daphne knelt at the edge of the river. "Everyone who wasn't here before, it's easy." she said. "Just touch a bubble, and you'll get sucked in and carried along. Oh, and don't worry--you don't go all the way over the falls--just for a second or two!"
        All the Applebus crew touched bubbles, and were carried along--though Sandra needed quite a bit of convincing, as she was afraid of water, and refused to go near it for some time. The bubbles merged as before, and the common orb floated to the cave.
        They entered, and touched the ground. The bubble popped, and all were left in the cave. There was a moment of silent indecision. "What do we do now?" asked Myki.
        "Ah don't know." Maik admitted, looking around. "Ah guess we could walk forward 'n--"
        "Look!" interposed Sandra suddenly. "What's that?" She pointed outside of the cave. Another bubble was floating toward the cavern's entrance--one filled with water.
       "Yeah, what on uhth [earth] is that--and how did it fill with water like that?" asked Daivi, brow furrowing. He clutched Sandra to him.
       The bubble floated to the cave's entrance, and in. All backed up to make room for it. The bubble encasing the water disappeared--but the water inside did not spill to the floor of the cave. Instead, it formed itself into a familiar-looking shape--that of a being with a body shape, but no features.
       "The water-voice!" said Maik. "Glad to meet you again." His hand left Daphne's and went to his green wool hat, which he doffed, not knowing what other salutation to make.
        And I am glad to meet you all again as well, the voice replied, talking inside everyone's thoughts, as it had before.
        Gavin let out a shriek of sudden recognition. "You!" he cried aloud. "You're the voice who told me my way home lies in the cave!"
        That's correct, the voice replied. And you have found the cave.
        "Thanks to Ianthe's idea." breathed Gavin gratefully. "But--why did you hurt me so much the first time you talked to me? You don't now."
        I apologize for the pain I caused, came the reply. It came from my taking on your sister's voice. In my natural voice--the one I use now--I can speak in thoughts painlessly, because I emit sound waves in a form compatible to all brains. Taking on your sister's voice, however, meant emitting sound waves that temporarily disturbed your brain, because they were a different form. The brain disturbance caused the weakness you experienced, as well...but as you can tell, it's a difficult and complicated question to explain. So complicated, in fact, that I failed to consider its possibility before I projected your sister's voice--that is, I didn't expect it to happen that way.
        "Uh, yeah, okay...just tell me I'm not brain-damaged from it, and I'll be fine." Gavin returned uneasily.
        Any such damage should have repaired itself by now, the voice replied.
        "Just out of curiosity, why put his sister's voice in at all?" asked Maik.
        First of all, because she is in her home world, thinking those very thoughts--save her lack of knowledge that Gavin's way home is in the cave. Second, because I wanted to express to Gavin that the situation is urgent, no matter how much time he has, and her voice was the way to do it. It did concern him, did it not?
        "It did." answered Daphne, remembering the panic on Gavin's part that had led her to tell him the story of Bryan.
        The feeling suddenly crept over everyone that the eyes--nonexistent though they were--of the water-voice had shifted to Daphne.
        Daphne, is it not? the voice asked.
        Daphne nodded.
        The first test you were given went well. You helped to rescue Bryan, then learned to say goodbye to him--thereby learning of the time system between here and your world. It has been useful and calming knowledge, has it not?
        "Yes." replied Daphne aloud, smiling a bit. "It has."
        Here is another test. You are first in this, Daphne.
        "In what?" asked Daphne. The others mentally echoed her question.
        You are the first step to sending Gavin home. There is a step for all of you--and two others. They will enter later to aid you. Elisay is one of the two. The other is unknown to you. Each step will bring you closer to knowing how to take Gavin home. More than one may be involved in a task, but it will be the individual's alone to solve. All are important, and all are a risk. But all of you have the power to accomplish your step. And Daphne's step is first.
        "All right." began Daphne, growing uneasy. "What do I have to do?"
        Do you wish to begin, then?
        Daphne looked at the others, who shrugged. "It's what we came here to do, isn't it?" asked Maik. "To send Gavin home?"
        Daphne nodded, and said, though already nervous, "I wish to begin."

Public disclaimer: This chapter was written around May of 2001, not near the terrorist attacks or anything. Still, because of the nature of the plot, I figured I'd better make this especially clear: The Rojanes and A'Laudes are purely fictional and are not meant to represent in any way a specific ethnic or religious group. Just fiction, 'kay? Thanks--sorry for the interruption.

        In a flash, she found herself...well, she didn't know where. It was in a long corridor, lit by bare single bulbs. The concrete floor and walls were cold to the touch. In her hand was a rolled-up scroll, inscribed "Daphne." She unrolled it, and read the following:

You would endure much for your friends,
But what of an enemy?
You speak of loving all, and giving to all,
But would you take the chains of one so odious to you
That it angers you to look upon him?
Behind you lies the escape from this castle,
Ahead lies the enemy of which I speak.
Pass through a door and, until this task is ended,
You cannot go through it again of your own power.
If you leave this place, you have left; if you stay, you stay.
One way is cowardice, one way is fear and pain.
Choose wisely--and steel yourself.

        Daphne looked behind her. A door had appeared, and sunshine was leaking through the cracks in it, as though teasing her and trying to weaken her will--the way out. Daphne's heart sank, and she let out a long breath. Her stomach was shot through with panic and queasy resignation. "Basically," she said aloud, very softly, "I fail if I leave--not that it said that, but I would think so--and I run into some awful thing if I stay--and all for saving some guy I'm going to loathe. Oh, man, what have I done to get myself into this? But it's my task to stay, or so it implies, and I'd better do it. I have to help save Gavin--and besides, it can't possibly kill me--I wouldn't get a task that could, I assume. So the door, then."
        Praying under her breath for more bravery than she'd ever had, Daphne walked forward. At the end of the long hall, she saw, was another door, with metal bars forming a window in it. Daphne peeked in. Chained to the wall was a young man with matted brown hair and a short beard. He was wearing a scrap of a light blue hole-riddled shirt and a simple pair of shorts. His feet were bare. He was streaked with dried mud. There was one window in his cell, all the way to the left. A shaft of light came through the window, landing on the man's legs and covering the rest of him in shadow.
        After facing the ground for some time, the young man looked up and noticed Daphne. Daphne, though her whole body was quaking in fear, opened the door and walked in. I can't get out now, she thought.
        Girl and man regarded each other in expectant silence for some moments. Finally the man asked, "Well?"
        "I--" Daphne stopped, considered, and finished her reply. "I don't actually know."
        "Talk some sense. What'd you come here for?" The man leered at her. "If you've come to grieve the loss of some sister of yours in front of me, save your tears. I'm not sorry. And if you've come on some other business, you can drop the charade and begin."
        "I really don't know what you mean." said Daphne. "What did you mean when you mentioned 'grieving a sister' just now?"
        "You must know. The whole dominion knows. That's why I'm here."
        "I don't know why. Tell me."
        "I kidnapped a dozen little girls half a season ago. I tortured them, then I killed them. I got caught, and that's why I'm here."
        "And you're not sorry?"
        "Not a bit. It was right."[*shudder*]
        "Why?"
        "That's easy." said the prisoner. "They're Rojanis."
        "What does that mean?"
        The prisoner's eyes narrowed. "Children of the enemy--you're not a Rojane until you're seventy-two seasons--you're known as a Rojani, which means 'little Rojane'. You haven't heard of the Rojanes?"
        "No. Are they a political group?"
        "Religious. One of the two main religious groups here."
        "And you belong to the opposing one?"
        "Supposedly. Really I just joined up 'cause the pay was better."
        "So you're atheist?"
        "Call it whatever you like. So anyway, the pay was good for Rojani skins, and double the money for girls under forty seasons old. So I joined up and got some twenty-five seasoners, and killed them. Though I might have anyway--I hate Rojanes. Though I hate the A'Laudes too--that's the side I'm on. If the price went up for A'Laude skins, I'd have faked a Rojane."
        He then related his torture and killings of the Rojani girls, who Daphne learned were a little over six years old in normal terms, in details that the writer will not go into. [Thank you. My imagination is doing too much with this already...]Suffice to say that the scroll was perfectly accurate in its prediction that Daphne would scorn the very sight of him. To do such things to pictures of innocence, in the name of some religion she'd never heard of, but really for money...and, with a shudder, she realized that similar things had the potential to happen in her own world. Somewhere in Palestine, was this very thing happening? A Muslim, or a Jew, killing someone in the name of the war, but for some gain unknown to everyone else? Not that skins would fetch money there, so she hoped, but still...
        The tickling in the back of her mind persisted, however, and she knew she would have to take this man's place in the chains. She had entered; she could not leave, she knew.
        "Just pretend I'd taken your place in those chains." she asked slowly. "And you were free. What would you do?"
        "Shapeshift and be a Rojane--then kill people from both groups secretly. A good joke on those Rojanes, wouldn't it be? I--"
        "You're a shapeshifter?" Daphne broke in, desperately trying to change the subject. "I've only heard of people like you in books. What are you doing in chains, then?"
        "You've never seen anti-shapeshifting chains? Where are you from?"
        "It's simpler not to ask." said Daphne. "Look, that's why I'm here. I was sent to take your place in this cell."
        The young man's eyebrows shot up. "Take my place? A scrapling like you, who's probably never killed so much as an insect? Man, how'd you get duped into that?"
        "I didn't! You don't even know the person who sent me! Look, do you want to get out or not? At the end of this hall is the door out. No guards. You have my word that the way is totally clear. And I'm here offering to take your place, even though I despise everything about you that I've seen and heard. Now are you going to do it?"[Wow. Awright. Daphne's a heck of a lot braver'n I'd've given her credit for.. either that or she's just gone completely crackers, one of the two... ;) ]
        The guy gave Daphne one long, searching look. "You asked me why I did what I did. Now I'm asking you why. I'm sentenced to public torture at sundown, if you haven't heard, and death four seasons from now on the anniversary of my crime. What can you possibly get out of this?...Wait, did you get sent as a spy?"
        Daphne met his gaze, which she had been avoiding, and held it. "I'm not a spy. My friend needs to get home. This is the way I have to help. Please don't ask me any more; you'd never understand. He's not a Rojane, and not an A'Laude. But I have to help send him home. So, my freedom for your bondage. Take it or leave it."
        "I take it." said the man immediately. "Take off these chains and let's switch."
        Daphne touched the chains, suddenly realizing that she had no idea how to break them. But however it happened, as she yanked at the chains to test their strength, they split into two parts, with a tricky-looking connector in the middle.
        "Good work." said the man. "Now sit there." Daphne did so resignedly, and the man fastened her wrists. "All tight." he said.
        He started to go, then looked back at her, shaking his head in puzzlement. "Why anyone would be sent to free me..."
        "Nobody sent me, remember? I'm not involved in this war."
        "Oh, right. And by the way, my name is Emphi D'rai, in case they address you by my name." he said. Daphne nodded. He opened the door, shut it, and was gone without another look back.
        Instantly panic gripped Daphne, and she thrashed and shook her chains, in a desperate hope that they would split open again. But they did not. She waited in misery as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky--trying to sing to calm herself, but unable to keep her voice from shaking; trying to recite random things, but unable to remember more than a few main words; trying not to cry and failing entirely.
        She swiped at her eyes with her arm to dry them as she heard footsteps come down the long corridor. Public torture, she thought, and pain--the scroll's in my pocket, and it said there'd be fear and pain, and I'm afraid of being tortured.
        The door swung open, and two armed men entered, carrying weapons unlike anything Daphne had ever seen. "Look." said one, nudging the other. "D'rai thought he could fool us into thinking he was a girl."
        "My eye, so he did." rejoined the other. Then he scowled. "How did you manage to shapeshift with anti-shapeshifter chains on, D'rai?"
        "I'm not D'rai." said Daphne, knowing full well it was useless.
        "Hm, he's keeping to the character he's formed. Whatever you say, Miss D'rai, but it's sundown, and we're to take whoever's in these chains to the square. Fetch the technician and have him fix the shapeshifting block in those cuffs, will you, Adlan? If he was a little smarter, he could have shifted into something that would have slipped him out of the cuffs. But, luck's on us, he didn't."
        Daphne was marched out of the door at the end of the hall and realized that she'd been in one of the towers of a castle--not made of the normal brick-or-stone-type material that Comolrin's had been, but of a more adobe-like feel. The air was baking hot, but dry and windy.
        She had expected to be brought into the town square, but realized that the guard had meant a raised platform on one of the castle's lower levels outdoors. There was already a gathering there--Daphne figured that this was the Rojane castle, and they were going to torture her where the A'Laudes couldn't save her.
        As they descended the long flight of outside steps that led to the square, the crowd noticed them coming and burst into noise--talking, shouting, chanting, cheering, jeering. As they got to the bottom, most of it turned to shock at the sight of a girl--then to laughter as they remembered D'rai's shapeshifting powers.
        "Behold Emphi D'rai," shouted the guard not watching Daphne, who had apparently found the technician fairly quickly (though Daphne had no idea whether there was another corridor connected to that) and then followed her and the other guard, "killer of twelve female Rojanis, and a known A'Laude bounty hunter, in the form of a girl!"
        Another explosion of sound ensued, and Daphne reached the bottom of the stairs. The Rojanes formed themselves into two parallel lines, and held sticks, stones, and small weapons at their sides. They waited expectantly.
        The guard gave Daphne a smack. "Go!" he said. "Between the lines! Now!"
        Daphne ran forward, entering the gap between the lines--and was promptly hit by a barrage of the sticks and stones. She was tripped by one Rojane, and went sprawling. When she was picked up, her arm took a lash by a man with some kind of retracting strap. All manner of small weapons were fired at or used upon her. Even children, in revenge at their fallen Rojani comrades, beat at Daphne with their small fists or kicked with the thick heels on their shoes. After some time, Daphne fell to the ground, and had to alternate between stumbling and crawling to the line's end.[Ohhh... *anxiously waiting for story to end so can go write more stuff for Amnesty Int'l!!!*]
        Daphne wasn't surprised at the anger the Rojanes still had towards D'rai. It had only been half a season, in D'rai's words--that is, about a month and a half--since the kidnappings. The torturing and killing could have taken up to a week or two, then the bodies would have had to be found--all in all, their grief and anger were still fairly fresh--which made their torture all the more painful, their insults all the harsher, and their cheering at Daphne's suffering all the more sincere. Everyone was more stirred by the torture than Daphne had ever thought people could be.
        Just how vicious the line was, though, Daphne was about to see. When she reached the end of the long line, a man grabbed her by the arm and forced her up, then screamed in fury at the top of his voice to the crowd, "This man--if you want to call it that--has taken our daughters from us for bounty! Torture is too good for him! It insults the memory of our twelve Rojani girls! Why wait for the seasons to pass? I say we take him to the top of the Low Tower and kill him now!" Others cheered, and took up the cry.
        "No!" began a guard (others had joined the two by this time). "That's not regulation! The law must be fair!"
        "Honor our daughters!" cried the man. "Kill D'rai now!"
        "Kill D'rai!" came the echo.
        "No, stop!" screamed Daphne, panic overriding good sense. "I'm not D'rai! Don't kill me! I'm Daphne Celora--I had to take his place--I'm not an A'Laude--I'm not D'rai!"
        "Lies from the killer of our daughters!" howled the man. "We shall throw this dog into the lava!"
        The guards tried in vain to calm the crowd, but, still enraged over the murder, they would not be subdued. They surged forward, kicking the throbbing Daphne ahead of them, who still screamed, "Please, I'll do anything, don't kill me, I'm not D'rai!"
        Daphne was shoved up a shorter staircase. She found herself at another flat tower-top--only this one overlooked a moat of steaming lava. She was too scared even to scream. She was roughly picked up and held high by the same man who had accused her. He screamed for all to hear, "Here is the man who killed our Rojanis, who will now die in the lava!"
        Then the man lowered her to his mouth and whispered in her ear. "Thanks for taking my place, kid. I make a good Rojane already, don't I?"
        All Daphne could do was stare in horror at the face of the shapeshifted Emphi D'rai before, to the screaming cheers of the crowd, she was pushed over the tower's side.[*it's all Ananda can do to keep from screaming in frustration at this point*]
        She fell, a thousand thoughts happening almost simultaneously, a jumble of memories, screams, protests, prayers, and a sensation of terrible suspense at what it would feel like to die.
        She hit the lava. For one painful quarter-second she could feel searing heat...then, suddenly, sub-freezing liquid...water that should not have been water...colder than ice, but water all the same...cold that nearly made Daphne black out. 
        She was almost instantly wrapped up in a strange substance...like gelatin, almost...something that encased her, warmed her half-frozen skin, and spoke inside her thoughts in a voice she knew well. You have completed your task. Well done, Daphne.

Chapter Notes

Further testing.. Maik etc., D'rai comes back, yeeaaahhhh....