Titans of Chaos

"Do I need an excuse, Vanity?" I said back. Well, maybe I raised my voice a little. It was hot here,and I wasn't wearing a nice cool towel, but a heavy leather jacket, jodhpurs, gloves, scarf, andleather cap. "Do I need an excuse? You've been pushing me to try out my powers, to experiment,and now you're barking mad because I did what you said! You're snapping at me because I mighthave attracted spies, but did you say anything to Victor when he blew a hole in an underseamountain with a death ray? You give one order and then directly contradict it, and you makethese stupid work schedules, except Quentin never seems to have work to do: When is the lasttime he chopped down a tree?"

"Mr. Nemo," she said in a voice so icy that it hardly sounded like Vanity, "has successfullydiscovered how to emerge from his body and assume an insubstantial form. This could prove to bequite useful to our little company. Last night, he entered the body of the fish he made from clay,and animated it, and he swam quite naturally and freely in the sea. He has discovered the secretof how his people, the Fallen, make new shapes for themselves. In the meanwhile, you havediscovered how to moon around after Victor and take leisurely swims in your bathing suit."

"At least I wear a bathing suit," I said with a snort. Okay, maybe I rolled my eyes a bit.

"That comment was quite a bit out of line, Miss Windrose, and you will apologize for itimmediately." I swear she sounded just like Boggin when she said that. No emotion at all. Not

"you shall apologize," like a demand, but "you will," like a predicted certainty.

No, not like Boggin. Like Nausicaa, a princess from a Bronze Age Greek culture of supernaturalbeings.

If I had been leader, and she'd caught me nude, I would have tried to make a joke out of it. Iwould have handled it better. I would have...

But I was not leader. Right or wrong, I had to support the group. So I apologized. "Sorry, Leader.

Please forgive me, Leader."

"Apology accepted," she said curtly. "Let us say no more about it."

"How did you get to be leader, anyhow?" I burst out. That kind of surprised me. If you had asked,I would not have said I felt any resentment. But no eyeball can see its own interior; no mind canknow its own buried thoughts.

"You were there. I cooked breakfast."

"That's so... so... chauvinist! It is such a stereotype! The girl cooking breakfast. Victor's a bettercook than you! Victor's better at everything."