In utter astonishment at the suggestion, Seven rematerialized. He debated. “It’s not sensible. It’s not at all wise,” he said. “You aren’t even resourceful like Ma-ah or Proteus or Lydia. And I can’t trust a word you say, because you change your mind all the time—”

“You’ll take me?” Josef asked.

“I’ll take you,” Seven said, sighing. “Only because something in me always worries about you, though. But you’ve got to do what I say, and you probably won’t remember much when you wake up. If you were awake in your terms, then you wouldn’t have asked the question.”

“What question?” Josef asked.

“Never mind. Look around the room and tell me what you see.”

Josef shrugged. “A chair, easel, windows, and a funny yellow monkey—”

“The monkey isn’t really there. You’re hallucinating it,” Seven said. “Make it go away or you’ll just get all confused.”

“Make it go away?” Josef asked.

“Do you have a monkey in your room ordinarily?” Seven asked, as if he were speaking to a slow learner.

“No.”

“Then it shouldn’t be here now. It’s a dream element. Tell it to disappear or I’m going on without you.”

“Go away,” Josef said to the monkey, and it just disappeared. Josef stared. A sense of power made him smile brightly. “What about you?” he said. “Suppose I make you go away?”

“Then what will you do?” Seven asked.

“I see what you mean. What’s next?”

“Well,” Seven said. “I’m not too happy at the thought of dragging you along, but there’s someone I have to look in on before I go back—Proteus. Never mind. Just follow me and don’t look back at the bed. Here, we’ll do it the easy way. Take my hand.”

As soon as Josef did, the two of them began to rise in the air. Josef’s consciousness blinked out for a moment as Seven thought it probably would. Unconscious, Josef was much more reasonable and easier to handle.

Cyprus watched Seven as he toted Josef along, but she just smiled to herself and made no attempt to contact him. His technique, she decided, was anything but unobtrusive.

Chapter Seven

The Further Descent of Proteus and the Rest of Josef’s Dream

Proteus’ small living nodule floated so gently when he went camping at home, that you simply forgot that it rested on air. Now it was only a few feet up from the ground, the collapsible steps reaching down to the rocky earth. But here the air currents pushed it every which way, and when Proteus looked out through the small transparent window-holes, earth’s opaque darkness stretched out as far as he could see.