Phaze Doubt Part 23

11 - West

Nepe knew it was silly, but she rather liked Lysander. He was an android with a Hectare brain, a spy for the other side, but that was balanced out by the fact that the prophecy made him necessary to the final victory of their planet. She had watched him for alien ways, but he seemed just as human as anyone else, and more so than she herself. When he had first come to the planet he had had affectations, but these had promptly faded; he was a quick study of local custom. Now that the Yellow Adept's love potion had made him love Echo, he was more to be trusted than before. He might think he remained independent, but he had not had occasion to test it. The moment his mission conflicted with his love, he would discover the love's power!

Meanwhile, she had to compose herself. She wished Bane had not given himself up. Now Flach was the only Adept left free, except for Clef and Tania, who had disappeared. Only Mach had known where they went, and he had erased the memory before letting himself be captured. She had depended on her father to support her when she faltered, and now she knew she was on her own. That made her nervous.

What was at the West Pole? Flach had been surprised by the North Pole, with its slowed-down time and the two Adepts there. It would have been worse if the snow demon's daughter hadn't distracted him. Nepe had learned a lot from Icy; when she came to adult status and modeled her flesh, she was going to make it just like that, only warm, and fling it about similarly. The only problem was that there was really no prospective man for her. Oh, she liked 'Corn well enough, but he wasn't a mixedbreed like herself, and so probably wouldn't do for the long haul.

Well, it would all come to nothing if they didn't manage to throw off the yoke of the Hectare. For now, she just had to go one step at a time, and get the three messages taken care off. Flach had gone to the North Pole; now she was taking the Hec seed to the West Pole. Both of these missions had proved to be more complicated than they seemed. She hoped the third one would not prove to be more of a challenge than she could handle. She knew that the fate of the planet hung on her success, and she was nervous about that.

She settled into a puddle and slept.

Next morning the golem party and Tsetse arrived with the wood. Nepe hustled Lysander out; he remained invisible, but of course she could tell where he was, because Flach had made the spell. They slipped out to join the party and take Echo away; Tsetse would enter the castle alone, where she and Brown would sort things out in their own fashion.

Now they were three: Nepe, Lysander, and Echo. While the other two embraced ardently (though it looked as if the woman were pantomiming, because of the man's invisibility), Nepe changed slowly to wolf form. An observer would have found it a strange scene: a child becoming an animal, and a cyborg woman embracing air. But Nepe wanted no observer, because Purple was alert, and must not catch on to this secret mission. She wished there had been some way to recover Lysander's clothes from Purple's plane, to eliminate any trace of what was going on. But it just wasn't possible to catch every detail.

She carried the Hectare seed inside her. She had joked about it, to Lysander, but privately it revolted her; she liked nothing about the Hectare, physically or mentally. They were true bug-eyed monsters, and they were out to despoil the planet and leave it deprived of its resources, especially its magic. All so they could use the Protonite to power their machines, and the wood for their construction, and the flesh of the animals for their larders, and the magic for whatever devices they could work out. They were still consolidating their conquest, but soon the serious ravaging would proceed, and then nothing would stop it. They had left a trail of lemon-squeezed planets behind; they were very efficient at what they called investment and reduction.

Yet Grandpa Blue had explained to her at the outset that the Hectare were only part of the problem. There were dozens of conquerer species out there, forming their galactic alliance, and any of them could have conquered Proton. The Hectare just happened to be the species the lot had fallen on. If they failed, another species would be allowed to try, because the alliance wanted the resources of this exceptional planet put to good use by its definition. Proton had been a low priority acquisition, before the mergence, because the magic was out of reach. But when it became apparent that magic was present and genuine, the priorities abruptly shifted. So if Proton, and especially Phaze, were to be saved, they had to forge a defense that would be effective against all invasions. That was a mighty tall order.

The truth was that Proton's presence in the alien sector of the galaxy made little difference, overall. The human sector was just as bad, for human beings were the greatest exploiters of all. The humans were taking over alien planets in their sector for similar reduction. Once they had squeezed them dry, they would start on the lesser alien planets-just as the aliens would start on the lesser alien planets once the easy pickings were done. The Hectare themselves might in due course be reduced to servant status by some more powerful alien species. It was the predatory chain, unceasing in its hunger for power.

"And so," Grandpa Blue had told her, "we must be either the eaters or the eaten. We can no longer drift in our isolation. If we do not set out to rule the galaxy, we must suffer the exploitation of those who do. Since we lack either the power or the desire to become galactic, our fate is sealed. Unless we find that perfect defense."

"Then we must find it," she had said.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. At least, there is no mechanism to make it feasible. Conquest seems unavoidable."

"But we can't just give up!"

"Hardly that, Nepe! Fortunately there is a prophecy that guides us and suggests that we can craft our mechanism, in time."

"How much time, Grandpa?"

"About seventeen years," he said.

She stared at him. "But it only takes the Hectare two years to denude a planet! If we don't get rid of them within two months, we'll suffer awful harm!"

"True. But the prophecy indicates that we shall need the help of the enemy to succeed. So we shall have to let them get started, and then see what we can do."

"Grandpa, I think there's something you're not telling me!"

"Whatever gave you that notion, cutie?"

Then she was sure. "But when the time comes-"

"Then you will know as much as you need."

Now, remembering, Nepe still did not know the plan. It seemed impossible to forge a seventeen-year weapon in two months. But she believed in Grandpa Blue, who was also the Adept Stile, and in the others who supported him. More recently she had seen how even the Green and Black Adepts, former enemies, supported him too, even to the extent of giving up their freedom to help Flach get away. They could have saved themselves, but hadn't even tried, preferring instead to distract the enemy. Then Bane himself had done the same to protect the spy Lysander, just so he would be able to fulfill the prophecy-if he chose. So she was protecting Lysander too, and also doing this other awful thing, carrying the Hectare seed to the West Pole. They had discovered how the North Pole related, because of the Magic Bomb-but how could the West Pole relate? Well, soon she would find out, she hoped.

Now she was in wolf form, and Lysander and Echo had finished their first pa.s.sionate reunion, after a separation of a whole day. Nepe was jealous; she hoped some day to love like that. Of course it was because of the Yellow Adept's potion, but it was genuine; the potion merely enhanced what nature would have done in time. Their love was true, whatever else was artificial.

"We must travel," Nepe told them. "But we need more. You two hide while I go summon the others."

Echo stared. Then she understood. "You aren't really a wolf, so you can make your wolf-mouth talk human speech."

"Yes. Don't let Purp or the golems catch you." Then Nepe loped away. She knew that the two would find something to do while they waited, and would hardly miss her. It didn't matter that Lysander was invisible; Echo could feel him, and he could feel her. She would merely close her eyes.

Kurrelgyre's wolf village was not far away. Nepe was familiar with the region, because Flach's mind was with her. Flach had been content to tune out the past two days, lost in the bliss of foolish fond imaginings relating to snow demonesses. But that was wearing off now, as reality seeped in; Icy was not for him, for about three excellent reasons: age, species, and mission. The last was the most important; if he did not help save Phaze, none of the snow demons would survive.

Right, he agreed, her thought clarifying his sentiment. Bear left.

She bore left. He knew every bypath here, while she knew only the approximate routes. It would have been easier to give him the body, but both the Hectare seed she carried and the danger of Purple's snooping on their magic ruled that out. Maybe when they got farther into the hinterland, on the way to the West Pole, it would be safe to transform. So she jogged on, though her emulation of a wolf was not nearly as good as his. She was an amoeba a.s.suming the form, whereas he could change into a real wolf, capable of all the lupine things, including (in due course) reproduction.

Maybe Sirel's approaching her time! he thought.

But Sirelmoba, his Promised, was only nine years old, the same as he was. It should be two years yet before her first season. Still, it was better for him to be thinking of her than of Icy, for Sirel would be coming with them to the Pole.

Yes, he agreed, brightening.

They reached the werewolf village. Well before Nepe entered it, the guard wolves were pacing her. But they knew her, and knew why she was here. In a moment Sirelmoba appeared, formally sniffing noses and tails, and politely concealing her distaste for the alien odor. No mock-wolf could deceive a true one!

"And three more," Nepe said using human speech because she could not use the wolves' growl-talk effectively.

Old Kurrelgyre a.s.sumed human form. "Runners are going for them. They will join thee on the way."

"But we shall be hiding!" she protested.

"No one hides from wolf or bat at night. He will find thee, and will alert the mares when they draw nigh."

He will, Flach a.s.sured her.

"If you will cover our trail-"

"Done," Kurrelgyre said. "And good fortune to thee, little b.i.t.c.h."

"Thank you." She appreciated the sentiment; it was a compliment to be called a b.i.t.c.h by a true werewolf.

She turned to go, the young wereb.i.t.c.h beside her. The others of the Pack faded to the sides. They would cross and recross the trail, obliterating it, so that no one would be able to trace the route of the two by sight or odor. They would also serve as an early guard, so that nothing would get through to attack the small party while it remained in the local Wolf Demesnes. They would be un.o.btrusive about it, so that there was no commotion. They did not know the details of her mission any more than she did, but were well aware of its importance.

Sirel and Nepe ran silently. The b.i.t.c.h held her pace back, because Nepe could not match it. Even so, Nepe was getting tired; she would have done better in human form, because she had had a great deal more practice in it, though it was no more natural to her than wolf form.

They reached the place where she had left the ardent couple. Sirel knew it well before Nepe did; her keen nose picked up the foreign scents. "They be not standing guard," she said in growl-talk.

Nepe could understand the growls better than she could make them. "Love potion," she explained.

"Aye, and strong!"

They made just a bit of noise approaching, so that the couple could disengage. Nepe suspected this would be a problem as they traveled; instead of sleeping at night, the two would be wasting their energies in amour. But it couldn't be helped; it was part of the price of the mission.

Sirel blinked as they came in sight of the couple. Her nose made it plain that the man was there, but her eyes couldn't find it. "Flach made him invisible," Nepe explained.

"Should have made him unsmellable," Sirel growled.

"This is the wereb.i.t.c.h Sirelmoba," Nepe said, introducing her to the couple. "And the android Lysander, and cyborg Echo," for Sirel's benefit. "We must travel together."

Sirel growled a.s.sent, not wholly pleased. She would rather have traveled alone with Nepe-or better yet, with Flach. But she knew that the preference of any of them had little to do with it.

"We go to the West Pole," Nepe said. "We have three days to make it, and we must all get there. If Citizen/Adept Purple catches on, he will try to stop us, and we will have to scatter and rejoin later, but we must keep moving. Sirel and Echo can sustain the pace, but Lysander and I can not, so we will have help. There will be one more member of our party who will not have a problem traveling." But she realized that there could be a different problem there. She hoped they would be too busy traveling for that to manifest.

"The West Pole!" Sirel said, a.s.suming her girl form, which was much like Nepe's human form except that her hair was always dark. Nepe's hair was whatever color she chose when she a.s.sumed the form; she had recently worn it neutral brown, and just long enough to cover her ears, so that she did not have to bother to form ears. "But there be naught there!"

"Maybe there will be something by the time we get there," Nepe said, hoping that was the case.

"Well, there is still a portion of the day left," Echo said. "Why don't you folk start walking, and I will spy out the terrain ahead."

"Thank you," Nepe said.

"I'll go with you," Lysander's voice came.

"I think not, handsome man!" Oche the harpy screeched, flapping up into the sky.

"Point made," he agreed ruefully.

"I will range out the same on land," Sirel said. "Not all can be seen from above." She slid into the bush, disappearing in a moment.

Nepe started walking, trying not to limp; her temporary muscle structure was becoming uncomfortable.

"But Nepe, why can't you a.s.sume some form that will enable you to travel more readily?" Lysander asked her.

"All my forms are unnatural," she replied. "I would get tired in any, and waste time and energy changing between them."

"But as Flach-"

"The others can change forms without trouble, as many times as they wish," she explained, "because those forms are inherent in their natures. The werewolves are descendants of men and wolves, and the harpies have vulture and human ancestry. There is no significant magic splash when they change. But when Flach changes forms, other than his natural ones of unicorn and boy and maybe wolf, he has to use a new spell each time, and the splash is detectable throughout Phaze. Purple is watching for it, and would be here in a moment. So Flach has to be very limited in his magic. That, along with the problem of carrying the Hec seed-"

"I understand. You have amazing abilities in either aspect, but you have limits too. You are surprisingly candid about them.'

"If Purp closes in on us, you'll have to help me get away, or you won't learn what we're up to."

"Yet if you are the only one who knows how to implement the resistance ploy, then if you are stopped, it may be stopped too."

"Unless I am the only one I know of who can implement it," she said. "If there are others I don't know about, you will never have a chance to stop them, unless you help me get together with them according to the plan."

"True." He believed that she was the only one, but it could have been set up to give him that impression so that he would stop looking. Even the story of the prophecy could have been concocted to deceive him. It wasn't safe to stop yet. "So I must continue to support the enemy, until the full nature of the resistance is known."

"Meanwhile, you can love Echo," she said. "And maybe by the time you know the whole thing, you won't want to mess it up."

"Maybe by then she will understand that I have to do what I have to do, and will join me in it."

"And maybe even if she does, when the Hec ravage the planet the magic will go, and Oche will die, and then Echo will be nothing but a machine with a dead brain."

It sounded as if someone had struck him in the gut. He stopped moving, and evidently leaned against a tree.

"I'm sorry, 'Sander," she said. "That was a mean thing to say."

"You scored, Nepe." He sounded out of breath. "I think I didn't really believe the power of that potion! I do love her, and I couldn't let that happen to her."

"Maybe they'll let you save a bit of Phazite for her, so she can be all right. It's a chip of Protonite that runs her robot body, and that's the same stuff. If you keep enough of that-"

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, managing to resume his walking. "It's not in your interest to do so."

"Grandpa Blue taught me you can't win a chess game by cheating. You can hide your strategy, but you have to tell your opponent when you put his king in check, and his queen too, if you want to be sure. We gave you a queen, and she's in check."

"That you did, and that she is," he agreed.

"But it's our whole world in check."

"I appreciate your position."

"If you had it to do over, would you go with Echo and take the potion?"

"I didn't know about the potion until I was locked in with it."

"But you didn't really believe in it, so you didn't try to escape. But now you know it works-if you could go back and avoid it-"

He walked for a while, pondering. "Alyc was just a diversion; she and I both knew that. Jod'e could have been real; I'm still sorry about the way Tan got her. I would change that if I could! Echo was n.o.body special. I just went with her because she had a way out, never expecting to love her. But now I have had the experience of loving her, and that is something I would not change. Before I had only my mission; now I have my mission and love, and that has made a dimension in my life that was not there before. So if I had known the whole of it, I would have proceeded exactly as I did. Love is too valuable to bypa.s.s."

"I wasn't teasing you," Nepe said. "I just wanted to know. I like a lot of people, and I love my folks, especially Grandpa Blue, but I've never had romantic love. I figure if it's not worth it, now is when you'll know."

"It's worth it," he said. "But I still have my mission. If you fell in love, you would still have yours."

They walked on. Nepe thought about her relation with Troubot, and Flach's with Troubot's other self, Sirelmoba, and knew that these were friendships, not romantic love. She flirted with Alien or 'Corn, but again, she knew this was a far cry from the kind of commitment she had seen in adults. The fact was that there was no person or creature of her generation that was like her: part alien, part human, and on Flach's side, part unicorn and part machine. Or maybe he had the human lineage and she the machine; it was a matter of definition, since their fathers had used each other's bodies. She was also a male/female mergence, which was fine for a.s.sociation with Sirelmoba/Troubot, but not with anyone else. Thus she was a complex creature, and in her fashion unique to the planet; no one else had her variety of affinities or abilities. If she could meet another like her, only different- But how could she? It would require strenuous effort to make another like her, which was impossible in the face of the Hec conquest, and even then the result would be at least ten years younger than she. So she was alone in her special fashion.

"Why do I have the feeling that despite all your talents," Lysander asked, "you have an emptiness like that of mine before love?"

"Because you know I'm one of a kind!" she snapped. "IT never have true love!"

"You don't need another like you for love," he protested "All you need is a suitable companion, and a love potion. I happen to know."

She laughed, feeling better. Maybe he was right.

The harpy returned. She flapped clumsily down until close to the ground, then manifested as Echo. "Which side do the goblins serve now?"

"Ours," Nepe said. "All the creatures are with us, because they'll all die if Phaze is despoiled. But if they don't know the importance of my mission, they may figure it's business as usual."