Queen of Their Colony (Kindred Tales)

“A path only we can see?” Terra asked.

“Yes, yes—it will appear in front of you and you’ll be able to see it, but no one else will,” Mistress Bodikin told her impatiently. “Now, as for the next world, Pozdon Three, its inhabitants are sentient plants who call themselves the ‘Froozles.’ Being that they are plants, most of them are rooted in place so you only need to avoid them as you walk through their world.”

“And the last world?” Terra said, raising her eyebrows.

“Ah, that is the world I unfortunately know the least about. From what my scans can see, it appears to be a type of jungle, with no sentient beings at all.”

“And will we be able to breathe on all three of these worlds?” Terra asked, thinking of another possible problem. “I mean, will the atmosphere support our kind of life?”

“Oh my, yes! I have my portal controls set in such a way that worlds which are uninhabitable to humanoids cannot be accessed without a code,” Mistress Bodikin waved a hand dismissively. “So please don’t worry about that!”

“So this invisible path that only we can see,” V’rone rumbled, speaking up again. “Will it lead us to a door that only we can see, too?”

“Exactly right—he’s quite intelligent for a male, isn’t he?” Mistress Bodikin remarked to Terra. “Yes, at the end of each path you’ll find a door with instructions on how to open it and get to the next world. You have only to do as the instructions say to get through.”

“What if we can’t open a door for some reason, though?” Terra asked. “What if we get stuck in one of these worlds?” She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life on a world where no one had emotions, or living with a bunch of sentient plants, or in the middle of a wild jungle.

But Mistress Bodikin seemed to have an answer for everything.

“Impossible,” she said crisply. “If, after seventy-two hours you have not completed your quest, the homeward rings will pull you back here to the portal door.”

“Seventy-two hours?” Terra frowned. “You think that’s how long it will take us to do this?” That timeline was cutting it awfully close. She would barely have a day to get back to the Monstrum Mother Ship and get ready to attend her ex’s wedding!

“Actually, it ought to take less time than that but we have that timeline as a failsafe,” Mistress Bodikin told her. “And speaking of that, let me give you some provisions—you might be able to find food in the worlds you travel through, but then again, you might not. Servant—bring me a Multiverse travel provision pack!” she added loudly, clapping her hands.

One of the servants ran off and came back in moments carrying what looked like a large black backpack with shoulder straps. He handed it to Tem, who shrugged into it with a nod of thanks.

“There now—there’s more than enough in there to keep you all fed and satisfied for the entire mission,” Mistress Bodikin told Terra. She clapped her hands together. “Are you ready to go? Forgive me for rushing you but I do so long to lay my hands on the Kat-sat-Suum! Why, they say it can rejuvenate the one who uses it, a full forty years, if you can believe it!”

“That’s all well and good but what about weapons?” V’rone growled. “We came to your house unarmed because of the laws of Yonnie Six which state that bodyslaves may not carry weapons, but I for one don’t like going into a strange new world without any way to defend myself and my Mistress.”

Mistress Bodikin frowned at Terra.

“My, your bodyslave is impertinent! I assure you—all of you,” she went on, “that there is no need for weapons because you will be quite safe. And even if you had weapons, you could not take them with you. The portal does not allow any implement which can be used for killing to go through. It’s the only way to be certain we don’t disarrange the Multiverse,” she added.

“Well…” Terra frowned. She would have been happier if she and the three Monstrum were armed too. But since Mistress Bodikin had promised so emphatically that they would all be safe and this was the only way to get the Heart-finder…

“Well?” Mistress Bodikin repeated, frowning at her. “Well, what? Will you go?”

“I was going to say, ‘Well, I guess that covers everything.’” Terra exchanged glances with V’rone, who nodded. Rive shrugged and Tem murmured,

“We are ready to follow you anywhere, my Lady.”

“All right, then…” Terra took a deep breath. “I guess we’d better go. But first, everyone hold hands,” she added.

“A wise decision.” Mistress Bodikin nodded gravely. “You wouldn’t want to be separated from your bodyslaves—you’ll need each of them in turn to open the doors.”