Faun and Games (9 page)

talent at all, being only part human." He didn't count his natural faun

traits as a talent.

"I have a decent talent."

"But you said-"

"I'll show you." She focused on the back of the seat before her.

A picture formed on it.

Forrest stared.
 
"But that's not a spot!
 
It's a picture."

"It's lots of little spots.
 
Dots.
 
All different colors and

intensities. So, taken together, they make up the picture."

He looked closely, and saw that it was true.
 
The picture was composed

of a multitude of tiny dots, so closely set that the moment he blinked

they fuzzed back into the picture.
 
"But that's a good talent. I thought

you meant spot-on-the-wall as a euphemism for having a worthless

talent."

"No, it's a good talent.
 
But it's not doing me any good."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm stuck here behind the locomotive, going crazy."

"Crazy?"

"That's what it does to you.
 
Didn't you see all those other folk on

this coach?"

"They look like dummies."

"That's because they have gone completely loco.
 
There's no hope for

them; they've crashed.
 
But I'm not completely loco yet, so there's hope

for me.
 
That's why I'm crying." Her eyes began to brim again.

"I don't understand."

"By the time you understand, it's probably too late.
 
The ei'fect builds

gradually.
 
Each lap the locomotive makes around the castle makes it

worse.
 
You're still fresh; you're hardly crazy at all.
 
And I guess

being close to you makes me less crazy, for a while, until we both are

overwhelmed."

Forrest was starting to catch on.
 
"The longer we stay here, the crazier

we become?
 
Because of the locomotive?"

"Yes.
 
I was pretty far gone, until you came in.
 
But it won't last."

"Then we must get off the train before it gets us."

"We can't get off.
 
Why do you think I was crying?"

"I wasn't sure.
 
But I hoped to help.
 
Why can't we get off?"

"Because it won't stop.
 
The windows won't open, the doors won't open,

and even if they did, look how fast it's going."

He looked out the window, and saw the wall rushing by at blinding

velocity.
 
He looked across the aisle to the far windows, and saw the

moat passing just as swiftly.
 
"But it stopped for me."

"It stops to let folk on, not to let them off."

"Why didn't you get off when it stopped for me?"

"I couldn't.
 
The seat belt held me."

"What seat belt?" Forrest saw nothing of that kind.

"The automatic seat belt.
 
It clasps you only when the train is

stopping."

"So if someone else wants to get on, I'll be belted too?"

"Yes.
 
It belts everyone, so no one will get hurt."

"But that's crazy!"

"Precisely."

"Well, we'll have to get out of our seats while it's moving, then stop

it."

"I tried that.
 
The coach is locked up.
 
No way out of it.
 
The

locomotive won't stop unless everyone is secured."

A bulb lighted.
 
"The Challenge!
 
It's to make the train stop."

"I guess so," Dot agreed.
 
"But I have no idea how."

"And if I don't figure it out pretty quick, I'll go crazy, and become

another crash dummy."

"That's true."

Forrest pondered.
 
He was starting to feel a bit unbalanced already, and

he could only have been around the berid once or twice.
 
But there had

to be a way to get oft the train.
 
He just had to figure it out. Soon.

He saw no way, offhand.
 
The limited scenery zoomed by unabated. Even if

he could manage to open a window or door, it wouldn't be safe to jump

out.
 
He had to get the train to actually stop, without fastening him

down with a seat belt.
 
That seemed impossible.

But there did have to be a way.
 
That was in the big book of rules, or

whatever.
 
He hoped.
 
So what was he overlooking?

There hadn't seemed to be much way to cross the moat, either.
 
But he

had managed to use the psychologist to change things, so that it became

possible.
 
Too bad there wasn't another psychologist, to shrink the

locomotive, until it couldn't pull them along so fast.

Then another bulb started to light, but he managed to suppress it before

the woman saw it.
 
There was another person, and she was it. She must be

the key to escape.
 
She wasn't a fellow trap-ee, she was part of the

Challenge.

But her talent was merely spots on a wall.
 
Very good spots, but how

could spots stop a train?
 
Unless "Dot, can you make a picture outside

the train?"

"Well, if there's a surface close enough."

"Can you make a picture of a door through that wall?"

"I suppose.
 
But the wall is moving.
 
It would carry away my dots."

"No, we're moving.
 
The wall is still."

"Oh.
 
I suppose that's right." She focused on the wall, and in a moment

a picture formed.
 
It was a door.
 
It seemed to be right opposite their

window, unmoving.

"Very good," Forrest said.
 
"Now can you make that door open?"

The door slowly opened, revealing a nice garden beyond.

"Now can you make a similar door in our window, and open it?"

The dots quickly formed a door, and it opened.

"Now all we have to do is go through those two doors, and we'll be

there," he said with satisfaction.

"It won't work," Dot said sadly.

But he tried it anyway.
 
He reached across her and put one hand through

the nearer open door.
 
And banged his knuckle.
 
"ooooh!"

He brought his hand back.

"The window's still there," Dot explained.
 
"So is the brick wall. So is

the motion.
 
All I do is pictures, not changes.
 
It just looks

different." The pictures faded out.

Forrest sighed.
 
The doors were illusion; the window and wall were

reality.
 
He should have known.
 
It had been a rather crazy idea.

Crazy.
 
That figured.

He sat back and pondered some more.
 
He didn't want any more

'deas, he wanted something that worked.
 
What could he come crazy I
  
I

up with, before his mind lost its common sense?

He still thought it related to Dot, and her talent.
 
How could her

talent stop the train?
 
Not with illusion, but reality?

What he really needed was information.
 
Like a manual of instructions,

to know how to stop the train.
 
But of course that was another crazy

notion, because mere pictures couldn't provide that.

Or could they?
 
Maybe it was worth a try.

"Dot, just how detailed can your pictures be?"

"Infinitely detailed," she said proudly.
 
"I can make dots so small they

can't even be seen individually."

"Then let's make a special picture.
 
Of a manual.
 
On the cover it says

I,OCOMOTIVE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS.
 
Can you do that?"

"Sure.
 
But that doesn't require much detail." The picture appeared in

the window, a book with the required words.

"Very good.
 
Now can you open it?"

The cover turned, in much the manner of another door opening, revealing

the title page inside.

"Show the contents page."

Another page turned, and CONTENTS showed.

Forrest leaned across to read it.
 
Near the bottom of the page was a

listing for Chapter 10: STOPPING.
 
"Turn to page fifty," he said,

reading the indicated page number.

The pages flipped across, stopping at 50.
 
But the print was too small

to read.
 
"Can you make the page larger?"

The image expanded, until it filled the whole window, and the print was

legible.
 
Forrest read it avidly: TO STOP LOCOMOTIVE IN ITS TRACKS, PULL

THE CORD ABOVE THE SEAT.

He looked up.
 
There was the cord, that he hadn't noticed before. He

reached up and pulled it.

There was a squeal as the train hurtled to a stop.
 
Seat belts jumped

out to clasp the two of them, as well as all the dummies in the rest of

the coach.
 
oops-he had forgotten that detail.

"You did it!" Dot cried.
 
"You stopped the train!"

"Can you show the contents page again?"

The pages turned back.
 
He found the chapter for SEAT BELTS, and turned

to that page: TO RELEASE SEAT BELT, PUSH BUTTON THEREON.

Sure enough, there was a button.
 
He pushed it, and the belt unclasped