Titans of Chaos

At the moment that the blue flash of Cherenkov radiation had seared the skull of theVictor-dragon, Vanity had held up her green stone. I saw the edges of the trapdoor above us, theframe leading to the deck, recede in the fourth dimension, an accordion unfolding, while thethree-dimensional distances and relations remained the same. Photons or matter entering thetrapdoor frame would be teleported across time-space to the other side of the frame with noevidence of any change or delay. Even a yardstick shoved through the gap would feel nodiscontinuity. From either side, the picture of the other side remained the same. »

In the fourth dimension, however, the change was real; Vanity had just put the cabin where weboth were far enough away from the landscape outside so as to give it a different set of naturallaws. This was the first time she had done it right in front of me; I saw how the green stoneactually operated.

It was fortunate, because the next thing the swift god did, after felling Colin, was to move (aninvisibly swift wing-blur of motion) to the edge of the trapdoor, draw a revolver-yes, a goodold-fashioned bang-bang-type firearm, very mundane and ungodlike: it was a .38 police servicemodel-and shoot Vanity in the head with it.

The bullet lost interest in concepts like inertia and kinetic energy being proportional to the squareof the velocity the moment it passed over the edge of the frame. The bullets bounced off Vanity'scheek and shoulder, stinging her about as much as thrown pebbles would have done.

The swift god said in a kindly voice, "Ah, girl of Phaeacian blood, you have been happily raisedfar from the corruption of the Smuggler-court of the Queen of Thieves. She spurned my suit, butyou favor her in look and spirit.

Come! I will spare you, if you open this door you slammed between us. I will make you my Queen,and we can rule the wreckage of the universe together. Eurymedusa just died, and I need areplacement busty bride! One of your art to be at my side! I ask only the life of the Chaos-beastthere next to you, the one whose cross-section so closely mimics the shape of girl or goddess. Iwant her people to be at war with Cosmos too."

Vanity said, her eyes like electric flame, her bosom rising and falling with angry breath: "I don'tmarry murderers on the first date!"