Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [192]
"Tazlo—please—don't let yourself get so excited. You were telling me about your dream-world of Artesia . . ."
"Yes. Well, I ended up living in the palace as a sort of permanent guest of Princess Adoranne—"
"This Princess—was she pretty?"
"Incredible. Golden hair, big blue eyes—"
"Blue eyes? How grotesque."
"Not at all; on the contrary. And a figure like an angel—"
"You—you were in love with this creature?"
"Well—I thought I was for a while—but . . ."
"But? But what?"
"But," Lafayette temporized, suddenly noting the edge Sisli's voice had acquired, "but of course in the end I realized I wasn't really in love with her—so she married Count Alain and lived happily ever after—at least for a while."
"While you occupied luxury quarters in her palace. How cozy."
"Believe me, she and I were good friends, that's all. And Count Alain was rated the top swordsman in the kingdom, by the way—"
"So—it was only fear of this redoubtable warrior that kept you from her?"
"Who, Alain? Nonsense. I fought a duel with him once and won—with a little help from Daphne, of course—"
"Who," Sisli said coldly, "is Daphne?"
"Why, Daphne is . . . is the former upstairs maid," Lafayette amended his statement. "But I mustn't get distracted from trying to figure out what's real and what isn't," he hurried on. "Anyway, there I was in Artesia, meeting the Red Bull. I thought—well, I thought it would be like old times, but somehow it wasn't. Even the Red Bull seemed different, somehow—he didn't seem to have any conscience anymore—"
"Things are always changed around in dreams, Tazlo."
"I suppose so. But that wasn't the biggest change. The Red Bull stepped out back for a moment, and suddenly—well, this part if very hard to explain. But suddenly—I was somebody else."
"It happens all the time in dreams," Sisli said sympathetically. "But now you're awake, and yourself, the same dear Tazlo Haz you've always been—"
"But I haven't always been Tazlo Haz! I was Zorro the Wayfarer!"
"I thought you said you were Lafayette Something, ex-king of Artesia! You see, Tazlo, how these different hallucinations keep shifting around?"
"You don't understand. It's all perfectly simple. First I was Lafayette O'Leary—then I was Zorro—and now I'm Tazlo Haz—only I'm still Lafayette O'Leary, if you know what I mean."
"No," Sisli sighed. "I don't. And this isn't helping our problem, Tazlo. You still have to remember how to walk."
Lafayette sat on the edge of the bed, gripping his head in both hands, ignoring the curious feel of short, curled feathers where his hair should have been.
"I have to come to grips with this," he told himself firmly. "Either I'm awake, and this is real, and I have amnesia—in which case I've always been able to walk through walls—or I'm asleep and dreaming—and if I'm dreaming, I ought to be able to dream anything I want to—such as the ability to walk through walls!" He looked up with a pleased expression.
"Ergo—either way, I can do it." He stood, eyed the wall defiantly, strode to it—and banged his nose hard enough to bring out a shower of little bright lights.
"Oh, Tazlo—not like that!" Sisli wailed. She clung to him, making soothing sounds. "Is it my itty bitty boy, can't even walk, poor Taz, there, there, Auntie Sissy will help . . ."
"I can walk through walls!" Lafayette snapped. "It's a perfectly natural thing to do in this crazy mixed-up place! All I have to do is hold my mouth right, and—" As he spoke, he had disengaged himself from the girl, advanced on the wall—and thumped it hard enough to stagger him.
"Tazlo—you're going about it all wrong!" Sisli cried. "There's really nothing difficult about it, once you get the feel of merging."
"Merging, eh?" Lafayette said grimly. "All right, Sisli—you want to help—teach me how to merge . . .!"
2
Lafayette had lost count of the hours. Twice Sisli had gone out for food—birdseed cakes and cups of sweet juices which in spite of their insubstantiality seemed to satisfy the inner man—or the inner whatever-he-was, Lafayette thought sourly. Once Vugli had